Microsoft has reported strong growth in its latest quarterly results, with revenue climbing 18% from a year earlier to $90bn (£67bn). Overall profits for the US tech giant rose by 31% to $35.8bn, largely attributed to increased demand for its AI products.
Its cloud platform, Azure, saw revenue growth of 43%, and Microsoft 365 Copilot now has over 30 million paid users. Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, stated that Microsoft "appears to be back on track," with its cloud revenue reinforcing recent momentum.
Conversely, Meta reported record quarterly revenue of $60.8bn (£45.5bn), a 28% increase. However, its profit fell by 14% to $15.8bn after expenses jumped 55%. The Facebook owner also raised its capital spending forecast for this year to between $130bn and $145bn.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, noted that investors focused on Meta's rising costs and lower cash generation as it accelerates spending on AI infrastructure, rather than its revenue growth. Chris Beauchamp commented that Meta's results showed "eye-watering spending levels still making investors nervous."
Microsoft's executive vice president for Copilot, Agents and Platform, Charles Lamanna, indicated that businesses are increasingly deploying AI tools across entire organisations, moving beyond small pilot projects. He cited deployments involving between 50,000 and 500,000 workers, with tech firms, banks, and pharmaceutical firms being early adopters, and manufacturers and healthcare providers accelerating their use over the past year.