Microsoft reported strong quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, exceeding market expectations, with strong growth in its cloud computing platform and a rise in the number of users of its paid artificial intelligence services.
The company, which is based in Redmond, Washington, reported revenues of $90 billion, or $4.81 per share, during the last quarter of its fiscal year, which ran from April to June, an increase of 18 percent compared to the same period last year.
The company's net income also reached $35.8 billion.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had predicted the company would earn $4.24 per share, with revenues of $87.62 billion during this quarter.
Microsoft Cloud revenues reached $59.3 billion during this quarter, a year-over-year increase of 27 percent.
This growth reflects the rising demand for the company’s Azure cloud computing platform, along with its AI-based applications and services.
Microsoft Cloud achieves its fastest growth since 2022
Azure and other cloud computing services revenues also rose by 43 percent during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, the fastest quarterly growth since early 2022.
For the full fiscal year, which ended at the end of June, the company's revenues reached $331.8 billion, an increase of approximately 18 percent.
The company said it also made $3.2 billion in gains from its investment in Anthropic.
She added that its investment in OpenAI boosted Microsoft's net income by $480 million in the fourth quarter and $4.9 billion for the full fiscal year.
Microsoft on Wednesday revised its forecast for total spending in calendar year 2026 to $175 billion, down from $190 billion previously.
It spent $41 billion in the last quarter and expects to increase its spending to $50 billion in the current quarter.
Microsoft shares rose more than 8 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
