Microsoft on Wednesday reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with its cloud business accelerating as demand for its services continued to rise.
Revenue from Microsoft's Azure cloud platform rose 43% in the latest quarter, its strongest growth in four years.
Capital expenditure increased 70% to $41 billion in the quarter. Chief financial officer Amy Hood said the company now expected to invest about $175 billion over the current financial year, below its previous forecast of as much as $190 billion due to an accounting change from finance to operating leases.
Hood told analysts in a conference call that Microsoft expected capital expenditure to grow next fiscal year as it expands capacity to meet demand across its portfolio.
Microsoft shares rose more than 7% in after-hours US trading.
Chief executive Satya Nadella said the company now had more than 30 million paying users of its Microsoft 365 Copilot AI service, around 10 million more than three months earlier.
For the financial year that ended in June, Microsoft's revenue rose 18% to $332 billion.
Net profit climbed by almost a third to around $134 billion.
