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Microsoft’s artificial intelligence-fuelled cloud growth fell slightly short investors’ lofty expectations in the three months to the end of June, sending its shares lower amid intense scrutiny by Wall Street over how the fast-growing technology will bolster Big Tech’s fortunes.
Sales at Microsoft’s closely watched cloud division, its biggest revenue driver that includes its Azure cloud computing platform, rose 19 per cent from a year ago to $28.5bn, just below Wall Street forecasts of $28.7bn.
Azure also posted sales growth of 29 per cent, which missed analyst forecasts and Microsoft’s own guidance for a jump of between 30–31 per cent. That compared with a rise of 31 per cent in the previous quarter.
Overall revenue rose 15 per cent from the previous year to $64.7bn, beating expectations for $64.4bn. Net income was up 10 per cent to $22bn, ahead of analysts’ forecasts for $21.8bn.
Shares of the Seattle-based company, which are up about 15 per cent this year, slid 7 per cent in after-hours trading in New York.
This is a developing story