Investors were worried about how much money they spent on artificial intelligence and reported the latest financial results on Wednesday, and were not much easier from Microsoft.
In the latest quarter, which ended on December 31, Microsoft has maintained a quick drive to build a data center to power cloud computing and artificial intelligence. It spent $ 22.6 billion for almost twice as much as the previous year.
Microsoft says that it will spend about $ 80 billion data centers in this fiscal year ending in June. He is sprinting because he says that he has no enough ability to meet the customer demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.
Its expenditure is the solid overall growth of both high -tech giant profits and profits. Profit reached $ 69.6 billion, increasing 12 % from the previous year. Profit rose 10 % to $ 24.1 billion. The result has won the Wall Street's expectations and Microsoft's own prediction.
“As AI becomes more efficient and easier to access, there are more demand in terms of exponential functions,” said Microsoft's highest executive, Satha Nadella.
The questions on AI spending between major technology companies were more urgent after surprised the emerging Chinese companies, Deepseek, and the surprising Wall Street. 。
Microsoft was the first major cloud computing company that reported financial results since Deepseek's revelation, decreasing by about 5 % over business hours.
Azure's growth, a Microsoft flagship cloud computing service, has slowed down to 31 %, slightly lower than the Wall Street expectations. More than one -third of its growth came from artificial intelligence. Investors wanted Microsoft to gain Steam as Microsoft's ability to provide customers this year, but managers will operate their investors to fulfill their ability until summer. He said he might be.
The company stated that AI sales exceeded the $ 13 billion per year.
Microsoft's artificial intelligence sales include computing power when Openai, which sells access to systems created by Chatgpt creators, and customers who use Openai products directly from Start-UP. 。 Microsoft is the largest investor in Openai, and recently said that financial agreements would expire in 2030.
The company has been working on customers for more than a year to provide customers with access to AI systems that exceed only what Openai has developed, and added a system from DeepSeek to the AI model catalog on Wednesday. And last week, when Openai announced a $ 100 billion Stargate project with Oracle and other partners, Microsoft said he had re -negotiated with Openai.
Azure is developing a new system, not the only provider of Openai data center. Microsoft is currently the first dive to spend on Openai infrastructure, but you can prioritize additional resources elsewhere.
“On the day of today,” betting “looks like a wise thing,” said UBS analyst Carl Kealsted wrote to investors on Monday in Deep Sheek Panic.
Deepseek's progress has added uncertainty to the value of Microsoft's investment in Openai, but it also helps Microsoft and his friends to spend on capital spending. This is “generally good”.
Amy Hood, Microsoft's financial chief, told investors that the company would increase its capital spending next year, but it would be slow.
(NEW YORK TIMES complains of Openai and Microsoft, claiming to violate the copyright of news content related to the AI system. The two companies have denied the lawsuit.)
In other areas of Microsoft's business, sales of online productive tools for companies, such as Excel, Team, and Word, have increased by 15 %, excluding currency fluctuations. According to Bank of America analysts, about 5 % of the qualified Microsoft 365 commercial customers have upgraded to include Microsoft's AI companion Copilot.
Microsoft's personal computing business was basically $ 14.7 billion.
