Cloud and AI products and services were the drivers of Microsoft’s record-beating Q3 FY25 quarter with a 13% rise in total revenue, as Azure’s growth in the cloud ecosystem continues to outperform.
Cloud revenue came in at $26.1 billion for the quarter, marking an 18% increase, while AI investments through tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot were seen as key long-term growth drivers.
Azure - a service that allows you to store, manage, and share custom VM images across an organisation - reinforced its role in the global cloud computing ecosystem relative to competitors such as Amazon AWS and Google Cloud.
The tech giant had Q3 year-on-year beats over forecasts across all major financial metrics:
- Revenue reached $70.1 billion, rising 13% year-on-year
- Operating income climbed 16% to $32 billion
- Net income grew 18% to $25.8 billion
- Earnings per share increased by 18% to $3.46
Microsoft’s chairman and CEO Satya Nadella emphasised the strategic role of cloud and AI technologies in driving business transformation.
“Cloud and AI are the essential inputs for every business to expand output, reduce costs, and accelerate growth,” Nadella said.
“From AI infrastructure and platforms to applications, we are innovating across the stack to deliver for our customers.”
Advertising revenue has exceeded $20 billion in the past 12 months.
“Results exceeded expectations and continue to see strong demand from our cloud and AI offerings,” Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Wood said.
“We’re rapidly innovating to expand our consumer businesses."
Shares in Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) skyrocketed 6.51% in intraday trading to $421 per share at the time of writing.
