MICROSOFT BEATS QUARTERLY REVENUE ESTIMATES – New AI features helped attract customers to its cloud and Windows services
Microsoft Corp beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue as new AI features helped attract customers to its cloud and Windows services.
Microsoft shares fell 1% in after-hours trading. They climbed 57% last year. Along with a rally in other tech stocks, including Alphabet and Nvidia, Microsoft helped fuel a 24% surge in the S&P 500 in 2023.
Revenue grew 18% to $62 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with the average analyst estimate of $61.12 billion, according to LSEG data.
Revenue at Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud unit, which houses the Azure cloud computing platform, grew 20% to $25.9 billion. Sales of Azure, for which Microsoft does not disclose a dollar figure, grew 30%, compared with a 27.7% consensus estimate from Visible Alpha.
Investors are watching Microsoft’s Azure and Office revenues closely to see what kind of sales flow come from the tens of billions of dollars the company plans to pour into data centers this year to deliver generative AI.