Microsoft’s AI soars in earnings
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Technology giant Microsoft reported a 29% year-over-year increase in cloud revenue this quarter, driven by higher-than-expected artificial intelligence (AI) demand.
Growth in Microsoft’s Azure cloud division outpaced Wall Street predictions but was slower than last year’s pace.
Microsoft’s Azure AI platform features extensive language models like GPT-3 from OpenAI and other open source projects from Meta and Hugging Face. This allows customers to build custom AI applications and integrate advanced technology into their operations.
“With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a press release.
“We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.”
Microsoft now has over 1 million paid users of its Copilot service, with more than 3,000 organizations showing 40% quarterly subscription growth. Adoption is strong both in the U.S. and internationally.
Leveraging its 2020 strategic partnership with OpenAI, Microsoft continues leading in generative AI. Recent advancements include an enhanced Bing search engine and the upcoming wide release of AI Copilot across Office applications.
Unlike Microsoft, Google Cloud’s revenue slowed down in the Q3 of 2023 amid the AI race.
