Microsoft’s revenue from its Azure cloud platform and related services rose 30% in the quarter ended Dec. 31, including a 6 percentage point boost from the company’s artificial intelligence technologies.
The company’s revenue overall increased 18% to $62 billion, with profits of $21.9 billion and earnings per share of $2.93, up 33% by both measures, topping Wall Street’s expectations across the board on the key metrics.
“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in the company’s earnings release, citing the growing adoption of Microsoft’s AI tools across different industries and technologies.
Activision Blizzard, the video game giant acquired by Microsoft for $69 billion last year, was included in Microsoft’s results for the first time, with revenue of $2.08 billion and an operating loss of $44 million for the quarter.
Developing story, more to come.
