{"id":123538,"date":"2026-07-29T23:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/123538\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T23:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:34:16","slug":"microsofts-cloud-just-hit-a-new-milestone-azure-crosses-100-billion-in-annual-revenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/123538\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s cloud just hit a new milestone\u2014Azure crosses $100 billion in annual revenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft<\/a> said its Azure cloud business surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue in its recently-ended fiscal year, cheering investors in the company even as the broader market plunged on worries over AI spending and U.S. inflation.<\/p>\n

Cloud growth in Microsoft\u2019s fiscal fourth quarter increased 43% percent year-over-year, providing a boost to overall quarterly revenue of $90 billion<\/a>, above analyst estimates of $87.7 billion. <\/p>\n

Azure, the core of Microsoft\u2019s cloud business, surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time ever this fiscal year, rising 33% over last year\u2019s $75 billion, Microsoft said. The gain helps cement Microsoft\u2019s Azure as a leading cloud giant behind Amazon<\/a> Web Services, and as one of the most prominent providers of the infrastructure<\/a> undergirding the AI era.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shares of Microsoft rose more than 8% in after-hours trading, following a broad market selloff in regular trading Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by more than 1,100 points<\/a> on Wednesday while the tech-laden Nasdaq 100 fell more than 2%. Tech stock have taken a drubbing in recent days over fears that rising capital expenditures among big AI-focused tech firms won\u2019t translate into returns fast enough.<\/p>\n

Microsoft appears hopeful to counter that narrative with its quarterly and fiscal year-end results.\u00a0In a statement, CEO Satya Nadella cited customer demand for AI as driving the growth in Azure and helping Microsoft\u2019s 365 Copilot service reached over 30 million paid seats.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s 2026 financial results show that revenue was $331.8 billion for the fiscal year, while net income was $133.7 billion, up 31% over last year. Earnings per share rose 32% to $17.95, although EPS was helped along by a $3.2 billion gain from Microsoft\u2019\u2019s investment in Anthropic and nearly $5 billion in gains from its investment in OpenAI during the year. However, the gains the $2.9 trillion tech giant saw were partially offset by severance expense and impairment charges<\/a> in video game business Xbox.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the fourth quarter, revenue rose to $90 billion, up 18% year over year. Net income surged 31% to $35.8 billion. Diluted earnings per share reached $4.81, up 32%.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Cloud, which includes Azure and other cloud businesses, was the driver of much of the quarterly growth, which spun up $59.3 billion in the quarter, a 27% increase. The commercial remaining performance obligations\u2014a figure that shows signed customer agreements that haven\u2019t yet turned into revenue\u2014was $678 billion, up 84%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft said its Azure cloud business surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue in its recently-ended fiscal year, cheering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[321,53,420,7829,201,3775,5283,320,7828,11717,157],"class_list":["post-123538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-microsoft","tag-amazon","tag-anthropic","tag-azure","tag-azure-ai","tag-cloud","tag-earnings","tag-fortune-500-companies","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-ai","tag-microsoft-xbox","tag-openai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}