tech
April 29, 2026
Microsoft beats on top and bottom lines with 40% Azure growth
Microsoft's Azure growth beat consensus, and corporate adoption of the Copilot artificial intelligence assistant is growing. Capital expenditures fell short.

TL;DR
- Microsoft's adjusted earnings per share were $4.27, surpassing the expected $4.06.
- Revenue reached $82.89 billion, exceeding the consensus estimate of $81.39 billion.
- Revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew by 40%, beating analyst expectations.
- The Intelligent Cloud segment generated $34.68 billion in revenue, higher than the consensus.
- Productivity and Business Processes segment revenue was $35.01 billion, up 17% and above estimates.
- Microsoft's 365 Copilot AI add-on now has over 20 million seats, up from 15 million in January.
- More Personal Computing revenue was $13.19 billion, a 1% decrease.
- Annualized revenue from AI altogether stands at $37 billion, a 123% increase.
- Quarterly capital expenditures were $31.9 billion, falling short of the $34.9 billion consensus.
- Gross margin was 67.6%, the narrowest since 2022, due to increased depreciation costs.
- Microsoft has $627 billion in commercial remaining performance obligations, up $2 billion from the prior quarter.
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