Microsoft Corp. said it will spend more than $30 billion in the current quarter to build out the data centers powering its artificial intelligence services.

Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing business delivered another quarter of blockbuster growth on Wednesday, powering revenue above Wall Street's expectations and showcasing the growing returns on its massive artificial intelligence bets.

Microsoft significantly exceeded earnings expectations for the June quarter and disclosed its standalone annual Azure revenue for the first time — providing new clarity into how it stacks up against Amazon and Google in the cloud.

Shares in artificial intelligence heavyweights Microsoft and Meta Platforms both surged in European trading on Thursday, after blowout quarterly results after-market on Wednesday. Meta shares surged 12.

And both Meta and Microsoft were already on track to spend more than 30% of this year’s revenue on capital expenditures, compared with about 15% to 20% historically. Those outlays were already beginning to look like mere table stakes after Google parent Alphabet used its report last week to bump up its own capex spending plans for this year to $85 billion.