By James Ovie
Microsoft announced its third fiscal quarter (first quarter of this year) report for fiscal year 2024, with revenue of US$61.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations of US$60.8 billion; earnings per share of US$2.94, exceeding Wall Street’s target of US$2.82. The company’s shares rose more than 4% in after-hours trading.
Microsoft’s capital expenditures on AI in the fiscal third quarter were nearly $1 billion higher than analysts’ expectations. Capital spending rose to $14 billion from $11.5 billion in the previous quarter, beating estimates of $13.14 billion, Visible Alpha data showed.
Microsoft’s launch of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) tools through a strategic partnership with OpenAI has sent its stock price soaring and helped it seize the title of the world’s most valuable company from Apple this year.
Microsoft has special access to OpenAI’s coveted artificial intelligence technology, which the company has been working to incorporate into its product portfolio, such as Azure, Bing, and Microsoft 365 (which includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
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LSEG data showed that the revenue of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud unit, which owns the Azure cloud computing platform, rose to $26.7 billion, exceeding the average estimate of $26.24 billion.
The agency forecast fourth-quarter intelligent cloud revenue of $28.4 to $28.7 billion, mostly ahead of Wall Street’s target of $28.47 billion.
Azure revenue grew 31%, beating market research firm Visible Alpha’s 29% growth forecast. Microsoft forecast fiscal fourth-quarter Azure growth of 30% to 31%, putting it ahead of Wall Street’s 28.5% target.