Microsoft reported it beat analysts' estimates in its third-quarter earnings released Wednesday.
"Cloud and AI are the essential inputs for every business to expand output, reduce costs, and accelerate growth," Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft, said in a press release published ahead of the Q3 call. "From AI infra and platforms to apps, we are innovating across the stack to deliver for our customers."
Microsoft's stock rose over 6% in after-hours trading after the earnings report was released.
"This was a strong, steady quarter from a company that's matured into its AI moment," said Jeremy Goldman, senior director of briefings at EMARKETER, a sister company of Business Insider. "Yes, growth is slowing in places like LinkedIn. Yes, infrastructure pullbacks raise questions. But Microsoft's ability to turn AI enthusiasm into real revenue — and real margins — sets it apart in a field crowded with promise but short on payoff."
Search and news ad revenues grew a healthy 21%, buoyed by Microsoft's early experiments with AI-powered Copilot ads, but the standout in the Q3 report was that Azure and other cloud services beat Street expectations, Goldman said.
"Still, investors will be watching closely as the company continues to pull back on data center expansion—a signal that even Microsoft sees the need to balance ambition with discipline in a shifting macro climate," Goldman added.
Ahead of Microsoft's earnings call on Wednesday, analysts at Piper Sandler said Microsoft "is in an enviable position as the world's largest software platform." Still, investors could be hypersensitive to Azure and the company's capital expenditure metrics.
"Bottom-line, capex-heavy models like MSFT and ORCL (among others) may face rising investor scrutiny, elevating near-term volatility on downstream policy and tariff implications," the analyst note, published April 24, said.
Here are the key numbers for the third quarter compared to analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
- Earnings per share: $3.46 vs. $3.21 expected
- Revenue: $70.1 billion vs. $68.48 billion expected
- Microsoft Cloud revenue: $42.4 billion vs. $42.22 billion
- Intelligent Cloud revenue: $26.8 billion vs. $25.99 billion
Big Tech companies like Microsoft are racing to lead the AI industry, which UBS said will grow into a $225 billion market by 2027.
In addition to domestic rivals like Google, Microsoft is also competing against Chinese developers. DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou, emerged as a notable contender earlier this year.
During its second-quarter earnings call in January, Microsoft said sales related to Azure and other cloud computing services grew 31% during Q2, which fell slightly below analysts' expectations.
At the time, CFO Amy Hood told investors that Microsoft was in "a pretty constrained capacity place" regarding its ability to provide enough data centers to meet demand for artificial intelligence.
Earlier this month, BI reported that Microsoft is simplifying how it sells AI, which falls under Copilot. People in the organization told BI that the current system confuses customers, slows down sales, and impacts the cost and quality of the tools.
Correction: April 30, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated the day of the earnings call. It took place on Wednesday, not Thursday.
