Microsoft on Thursday reported third-quarter revenue that beat Wall Street expectations, driven by gains from AI adoption across its cloud services and business software products.
Revenue rose 17% to $61.9 billion in the quarter that ended in March, compared with analysts’ consensus estimate of $60.8 billion, according to LSEG data.
Shares of the Redmond, Washington-based company rose 5% after the bell. Stocks soar as Microsoft ships genAI tool under strategic partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which also helped the company win the world’s most valuable company crown from Apple earlier this year did.
Revenue from Microsoft’s intelligent cloud division, home to its Azure cloud computing platform, rose to $26.7 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $26.24 billion, according to LSEG data.
Azure revenue increased 31%, beating market research firm Visible Alpha’s growth forecast of 29%.
Microsoft hasn’t disclosed absolute revenue figures for Azure, the part of its business best suited to take advantage of the growing interest in artificial intelligence.
Copilot tools – a set of genAI assistants launched in November for $30 per month – PC sales recover It lifted Microsoft’s enterprise software and Windows businesses.
Still, the cost of advancing AI has come to the forefront after Facebook’s parent company, Metaplatforms, raised its annual expense and capital expenditure forecasts.
