Microsoft (MS) recorded results that exceeded expectations for the first quarter.
On the 25th (local time), MS announced first-quarter revenue of $61.86 billion and earnings per share of $2.94.
The revenue surpassed Wall Street's estimate of $60.8 billion, and earnings per share also exceeded the $2.82 forecast.
Revenue increased by 17% compared to the same period last year, and net income rose significantly to $21.94 billion from $18.3 billion in the previous year.
This is believed to be the result of proactively integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technology across cloud and business segment products. MS is leading the global generative AI industry together with OpenAI.
In particular, Intelligent Cloud revenue reached $26.71 billion, about 21% higher than Wall Street's estimate of $26.26 billion. Azure and other cloud services revenue increased by 31% compared to the previous quarter. This growth rate is higher than the previous quarter's 30% increase and exceeds market expectations of 28%. AI-related growth in Azure was 7 percentage points, up from 6 percentage points in the previous quarter.
Productivity and Business Processes segment revenue rose 12% to $19.57 billion, slightly surpassing the market forecast of $19.54 billion.
Personal Computing segment revenue increased 18% to $15.58 billion, higher than the market estimate of $15.08 billion.
MS shares closed down 2.45% in regular trading on the day but rose more than 3.5% in after-hours trading, supported by cloud revenue growth following the earnings announcement.
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