Microsoft delivered robust first-quarter fiscal results, surpassing analysts’ projections on both earnings and revenue, powered by consistent strength in its cloud division, the company disclosed late Wednesday after the market closed.
Commercial cloud revenue climbed 26% year-over-year to $49.1 billion, exceeding the consensus estimate of $48.6 billion. Revenue from the Intelligent Cloud segment, which encompasses Azure, reached $30.9 billion—ahead of Wall Street’s forecast of $30.2 billion. The company posted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.72 on total revenue of $77.7 billion, outpacing Bloomberg’s consensus forecast of EPS of $3.68 on $75.5 billion in revenue.
Despite these strong financial results, Microsoft reported a notable 74% spike in capital expenditures, which rose to $34.9 billion for the quarter. According to company statements, approximately half of this increase can be attributed to investments in GPUs and CPUs to support growing Azure demand.
The upbeat financial release came amid operational challenges, as Microsoft’s Azure and Microsoft 365 services suffered a major global outage due to a configuration change in Azure infrastructure, disrupting critical industries including airlines and telecommunications. The company said the issue has mostly been resolved. Last week, Amazon’s AWS also reported an outage, underscoring the global reliance on a small group of hyperscale cloud providers.
Microsoft shares slipped over 2% following news of the outages affecting its services.
The company’s full statement for its financial results is posted here.
