SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 — Microsoft beat analysts’ expectations in its latest quarterly report, saying yesterday that the results were partly driven by its cloud and artificial intelligence divisions.

The tech giant reported US$90 billion (RM368 billion) in revenue and US$35.8 billion in net income in the last quarter of its fiscal year which ended in June, potentially alleviating concerns from investors and analysts about whether its investments in AI are paying off.

Its AI-powered business productivity tool, called Copilot, also has over 30 million paid users which shows “confidence” from customers as they use Microsoft to “power their AI transformation,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.

Microsoft also saw a US$3.2 billion gain from its investment in Anthropic, the company said.

Its investments in OpenAI boosted Microsoft’s net profit by US$480 million in its fourth quarter and US$4.9 billion for its full fiscal year, the company added.

Major tech companies in the United States have been spending billions to build out AI infrastructure and develop increasingly more advanced AI models.

Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are collectively on track to pour roughly US$700 billion into AI data centres, chips and computing infrastructure this year alone.

Yesterday, Microsoft adjusted its forecast for total spending in the 2026 calendar year to US$175 billion, down from US$190 billion previously.

It spent US$41 billion in the most recent quarter and expects to increase its spending to US$50 billion in the current quarter.

Around two-thirds of its spending goes towards “short-lived assets,” specifically chips, due to customer demand for “both AI and non-AI infrastructure,” CFO Amy Hood said during a call with analysts yesterday afternoon.

Microsoft’s stock soared more than 8 per cent after hours yesterday.

Meta, which also reported its quarterly results yesterday, told investors that it expects to spend up to US$145 billion on capital expenditures, driven by its investments in data centres and chips, nearly double what it spent in 2025.

The social media giant said net income dropped 14 per cent from a year earlier to US$15.8 billion.

Revenue, however, climbed 28 per cent to US$60.8 billion, beating estimates and underscoring the continued strength of its advertising business.

Shares in Meta were down as much as 12 per cent in after-hours trading, a sign of analyst scepticism over the scale of the company’s AI spending.

In June, Google parent company Alphabet announced it would raise up to US$80 billion in stock to fund its AI efforts, with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway committing US$10 billion.

Last week, Alphabet increased its capital expenditure estimate for the full year to as much as US$205 billion, a jump from its previous estimate of US$190 billion that CFO Anat Ashkenazi said was driven by AI investments. — AFP