Lates News

Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Wednesday reported quarterly cloud revenue that beat expectations, indicating that the company's massive investments in artificial intelligence are starting to pay off, even as Wall Street grows increasingly cautious about big tech companies' debt-financed, sustained spending increases. In the first fiscal quarter ended September, Microsoft's Azure cloud computing business revenue grew 48% to $33.17 billion, above the market expectation of $32.84 billion. Capital expenditure for the quarter was $45.2 billion, up from $34.9 billion a year earlier. Microsoft had previously forecast capital expenditure of $50 billion for the first fiscal quarter. The company reported free cash flow of $18.6 billion, while the market had expected free cash flow of $8.54 billion. Among hyperscale cloud service providers, Microsoft is also the only one expected to remain cash flow positive next year. Microsoft (MSFT.O) shares rose by nearly 6% at one point in after-hours U.S. trading.