Business & Markets
Microsoft shares jump 8% after cloud and AI gains
Microsoft shares rose more than 8 percent after hours on Wednesday after the company reported $90 billion in revenue and $35.8 billion in net income for the final quarter of its fiscal year, helped by cloud services and artificial intelligence.
The quarter ended in June. Microsoft said Copilot, its AI-powered business productivity tool, had more than 30 million paid users. Chief executive Satya Nadella said in a statement that the uptake showed customer “confidence” as they used Microsoft to “power their AI transformation.”
The company also reported a $3.2 billion gain from its investment in Anthropic. It said investments in OpenAI added $480 million to fourth-quarter net profit and $4.9 billion for the full fiscal year.
Microsoft lowered its forecast for total spending in calendar 2026 to $175 billion from $190 billion. It spent $41 billion in the most recent quarter and expects spending to rise to $50 billion in the current quarter.
Chief financial officer Amy Hood said about two-thirds of Microsoft’s spending goes toward “short-lived assets,” especially chips, because of customer demand for both AI and non-AI infrastructure.
Major US technology companies are continuing to put large sums into AI data centers, chips and computing infrastructure. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are collectively on track to spend about $700 billion on those areas this year.
Update
Microsoft shares rose more than 8 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
Microsoft lowered its forecast for total spending in calendar 2026 to $175 billion from $190 billion.
Microsoft spent $41 billion in the most recent quarter and expects spending to rise to $50 billion in the current quarter.
Chief financial officer Amy Hood said about two-thirds of spending goes toward short-lived assets, especially chips, because of demand for AI and non-AI infrastructure.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 23:01:35 UTC.
Update
Microsoft reported $35.8 billion in net income for the quarter, replacing the earlier $31.5 billion figure.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 21:41:31 UTC.
Update
Microsoft said Copilot has more than 30 million paid users.
Microsoft reported a $3.2 billion gain from its investment in Anthropic.
Microsoft said its investments in OpenAI added $480 million to fourth-quarter net profit and $4.9 billion for the full fiscal year.
The item adds context on large US technology companies' AI infrastructure spending.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 21:12:04 UTC.
Update
Microsoft reported $90 billion in revenue for the quarter ended in June.
Microsoft reported $31.5 billion in net income for the quarter.
Microsoft said cloud and artificial intelligence divisions partly drove the results.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 20:34:19 UTC.
Uncertainty notes
The longer-term return from Microsoft’s AI infrastructure spending remains unresolved.
Source
AFP news report published on .