Microsoft: Quarterly results exceed expectations thanks to AI and cloud

US technology giant Microsoft reported significantly better-than-expected results on Wednesday, once again driven by growth in cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI).

Net income totaled $25.8 billion for the company's third fiscal quarter of the staggered fiscal year (January to March), up 18% year-over-year. On a per-share basis, it came in at $3.46, significantly above the $3.22 analysts had expected, according to a consensus estimate compiled by FactSet.

For several quarters, Wall Street has been worried about whether AI giants will be able to maintain the frenetic pace they have been exhibiting since the end of 2022. They are particularly scrutinizing the monetization of generative AI, the subject of tens of billions of dollars of investment in recent years by the Redmond (Washington) group.

However, over the first three months of 2025, Microsoft saw a slightly slower increase in its revenue (20% compared to 21% in the previous quarter) in the "cloud" (remote computing), the set of infrastructures and services that allow its customers to use software and databases remotely, particularly for AI.

For the servers and cloud services business, a narrower scope, growth is even higher than that of the last three months of 2024 (22% year-on-year versus 21%), according to a press release. "For a quarter overshadowed by vigilance over AI spending and fears about customs duties, this is clearly a success, even if it is not a firework either," commented Jeremy Goldman, analyst at Emarketer.

Total revenue was $70.1 billion (+13%), a figure significantly higher than the $68.4 billion forecast by analysts. For Amy Hood, CFO, quoted in the press release, the cloud performance reflects "continued demand for our differentiated offering ." Microsoft "continues to leverage its AI infrastructure to deliver profitable growth," concluded Jeremy Goldman. In electronic trading after the close on Wall Street, the stock rose more than 6%.