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.

Microsoft reveals that its Azure cloud computing platform has generated over $75 billion in annual revenue, marking a 34% increase from the previous year

Microsoft surpassed Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue on Wednesday as strong demand from businesses for artificial intelligence tools drove steady growth in its Azure cloud-computing unit. Total revenue rose 18% to $76.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Thursday after most U.S. stocks slipped, as doubts rose on Wall Street about whether the Federal Reserve will deliver economy-juicing cuts to interest rates by September.

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.

Shares in the tech giant jumped after earnings came in above estimates. CEO Satya Nadella said that cloud and AI continue to drive the company's growth. Microsoft stock surged in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the tech giant beat analysts' expectations for another straight quarter.

Much of Microsoft’s recent growth has come through the cloud business, which AI companies have been using to host models.