Microsoft delivered stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, driven by robust growth in its cloud computing business and rising adoption of its paid artificial intelligence services, sending shares higher in after-hours trading.
The Redmond, Washington, company reported revenue of $90 billion, or $4.81 per share, for the April–June quarter, an 18% increase from the same period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had projected earnings of $4.24 per share on revenue of $87.62 billion.
Microsoft Cloud revenue climbed 27% year-over-year to $59.3 billion, reflecting demand across the company’s platform as well as its first-party AI applications and services. Revenue from Azure and other cloud services jumped 43% during the period.
For the full fiscal year, which closed at the end of June, Microsoft brought in $331.8 billion in revenue.
“This year, Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats, reflecting the confidence customers are placing in us to power their AI transformation,” Chief Executive Satya Nadella said in a statement.
The results arrive as investors across the technology sector have grown increasingly focused on whether heavy AI spending will translate into durable returns. Azure and Copilot, Microsoft’s flagship AI assistant, have been central to that scrutiny.
The strong quarter follows a period in which the company crossed the $4 trillion market capitalisation threshold, cementing its position among the world’s most valuable companies alongside Nvidia.
“We remain very confident in the long-term return on these investments, given these strong demand signals, the increasing product usage we’ve seen and the efficiencies that we’re driving across the platform,” said Danielle Criste, Microsoft’s director of investor relations.
Microsoft shares rose nearly 3% to $402.07 in after-hours trading following the announcement.
The performance underscores how enterprise appetite for cloud infrastructure and AI tools continues to fuel the company’s expansion, even as questions persist about the scale of capital expenditure required to sustain that momentum in the coming fiscal year.