Shares of Microsoft (MSFT +2.68%) rose on Thursday after the technology titan announced that it would provide investors with more information about its fast-growing cloud computing business.

Image source: Getty Images.

Quantifying AI's impact on Azure

Artificial intelligence (AI) runs on the cloud. The AI race, in turn, has been a boon for Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure platform.

Microsoft is a key investor and partner of OpenAI and Anthropic. These and other leading AI model developers rely on Azure for a significant portion of their cloud computing needs.

At the same time, tens of thousands of customers use Azure to access AI models, applications, and development tools.

Yet while investors have long appreciated Azure's rapid pace of expansion, Microsoft has disclosed little beyond its growth rate. Until now.

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NASDAQ: MSFT

Microsoft

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

93/100

Today's Change

(2.68%) $13.30

Current Price

$510.12

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$3.7TMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day's Range

$500.80 - $515.65

52wk Range

$349.20 - $553.72

Volume

24.1M

Avg Vol

37.1M

Gross Margin

67.94%

Dividend Yield

0.73%

Microsoft has finally begun to report Azure's quarterly revenue figures. And investors apparently like what they see.

Azure's revenue surged 42% year over year to $29.4 billion in its most recent quarter. That places it second only to cloud industry leader Amazon Web Services, whose revenue grew 37% to $42.2 billion in the quarter ended June 30.

Azure's growth is accelerating

Microsoft expects Azure's revenue to grow by 44% to 45% in constant currency in the current quarter, driven by soaring AI usage.