Microsoft shared the dollar revenue of its Azure cloud business for the first time on Wednesday. Azure brought in $33.2 billion in the July to September quarter, up 48% from a year earlier.
In the past, the company only shared growth percentages for Azure. It also described revenue milestones in general terms.
The new figure came as Microsoft posted total revenue of $92.3 billion for the quarter. That is a 19% increase from the same period last year.
Azure Tops Expectations
Azure’s revenue came in about $850 million above the $32.3 billion that analysts expected. Its 48% growth also beat the 44% to 45% forecast from Microsoft CFO Amy Hood on the July earnings call.
Azure is now Microsoft’s largest and fastest-growing product line, according to the company. It made up about 36% of total quarterly revenue.
Businesses use Azure to rent computing power. They use it to run applications and software, and to build and run AI models.
The disclosure makes it easier to compare Azure with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. The parent companies of those services already report cloud revenue in dollars each quarter.
Alphabet also reported earnings on Wednesday. Google Cloud brought in $30.7 billion in the same quarter, slightly less than Azure.
However, Google Cloud roughly doubled its revenue from a year earlier. That means it grew about twice as fast as Azure, according to TechCrunch calculations. Google Cloud also includes Workspace subscriptions.
Record Profits and Record Spending
Microsoft has now reported record revenue for 10 quarters in a row. Net income reached $36.6 billion, up 32% on a GAAP basis.
Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $63.9 billion, up 30%. Microsoft 365 accounted for nearly $28 billion of that total.
The company also reported $10 billion in revenue from OpenAI. OpenAI uses other cloud providers, including AWS and Oracle, but still runs much of its services on Azure. Anthropic also runs on Azure.
Microsoft said its commercial remaining performance obligation rose 73% to $677 billion. This figure represents future revenue committed under existing contracts.
The company also changed how it reports its business. Azure now sits in a new segment called Agents and Infra, which also includes the cloud business of Microsoft 365. That segment brought in $76.8 billion, up 25%.
The second new segment, Devices and Consumer, brought in $15.5 billion, down 3%. Windows OEM and devices revenue fell 22% from a year earlier.
Microsoft is spending heavily to meet demand. Capital expenditures topped $45.2 billion, a new quarterly record.
Amazon is scheduled to report its earnings on Thursday. Analysts expect Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud provider, to keep growing.
