Software giant reports $36.6bn in profit, beating Wall Street expectations, as Azure cloud computing division grows 48%
Microsoft gained billions of dollars in stock market value Wednesday afternoon after it reported better than expected revenue and profit, just days after it offered voluntary buyouts to some 60,000 employees.
The office software giant’s growth was fueled by its Azure cloud computing division, which grew by 48% in the September quarter.
“We are delivering greater capability, choice, control, and cost-efficiency for customers across our entire stack,” Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said in a statement.
The technology giant recorded $92.3bn in total revenue and more than $36.6bn in profit, the company said in a securities filing Wednesday. Analysts had expected around $90.6bn in revenue and $35.1bn in profit
The quarterly earnings report comes two days after Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of its workforce, as the tech giant spends heavily on artificial intelligence investments.
It’s the second voluntary buyout offer that Microsoft has offered employees this year, after giving seven percent of its US workforce the option to retire early in April.
Microsoft had 223,000 employees globally at the end of June, down from 228,000 at the end of 2025, according to regulatory filings.
Earlier this month, Microsoft also announced a new Surface Ultra laptop that runs on Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips and will cost more than $2,500. Apple announced a similar touchscreen Macbook this week.
The launch is part of a broader push by tech companies to release hardware that can handle more AI computing on-device and offline, so users do not have to rely solely on remote cloud datacenters, where running AI is slower and more expensive.
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Source: www.theguardian.com
