With AI and Cloud, Microsoft records first quarter better than market forecasts

The American IT group Microsoft posted results in the first three months of the year that exceeded market forecasts, including in the key activity of remote computing (the cloud), the importance of which was reinforced by the emergence of artificial intelligence. The group’s net profit was up 20%, to $21.9 billion.

The Intelligent Cloud division, which brings together data center activities, servers and software that can be used remotely, saw its turnover jump 26%, the fastest rate in two years. This branch now accounts for some 43% of Microsoft’s revenues, which is moving further and further every day from its historical model, which was based solely on the Windows operating system and its software suite.

“The path to AI monetization is clearest for Microsoft”in comparison with its great rivals Alphabet, Meta or Amazon, reacted Sophie Lund-Yates, of Hargreaves Lansdown, in a note, “the group is already reaping the dividends of its billions of investments in technologies such as ChatGPT and Dall-E which offer creation capacity and hyper-personalized use” to users of Microsoft products, added Jeremy Goldman, of eMarketer.

Turnover at $61.9 billion

The latter thus capitalized on its investment in OpenAI, whose generative AI interface ChatGPT shook up the world of IT at the end of 2022, and which it has integrated into many of its products and services. Microsoft also generated growth in its two other major divisions, professional services (+12%) and personal computing (+17%), which includes Windows, devices and the XBox console.

Sales of content and services linked to the latter have soared (+62%), thanks to the integration of the video game publisher Activision Blizzard. In total, turnover amounts to $61.9 billion, up 17% year-on-year. In electronic trading after the stock market closed, Microsoft shares gained nearly 5%.