Shares of Microsoft experienced a decline in post-market trading following the release of its fourth-quarter earnings report. The tech giant’s Azure cloud unit’s revenue grew by 29%, slightly below analysts’ expectations. Despite significant investments in artificial intelligence (AI), Microsoft’s cloud growth fell short of projections. The company’s Q4 earnings, announced on Tuesday afternoon, revealed a 29% increase in revenue for its Azure cloud unit. However, this figure fell slightly short of the anticipated 30% growth, as predicted by Wedbush analysts. Consequently, shares dropped during after-hours trading.
Microsoft, along with other companies, has been under scrutiny for heavy spending on AI without demonstrating substantial sales growth from this emerging technology. Microsoft’s investment of $13 billion in OpenAI and its plans to acquire 1.8 million chips to enhance its AI capabilities exemplify its commitment to this field. Earlier this month, Alphabet faced similar inquiries from investors regarding AI spending and results, with limited success. As Meta, Amazon, and Apple prepare to release their earnings reports this week, they too may face questions regarding their AI investments.
In its quarterly breakdown, Microsoft disclosed that capital expenditures, including finance leases, amounted to $19 billion, with AI-related spending accounting for the majority. Approximately half of the expenditure was allocated to infrastructure needs, such as data center construction and leasing. The remaining spending on cloud and AI primarily focused on server investments, including both CPUs and GPUs.
During the investor call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella provided a broader perspective on the company’s shift towards AI, aiming to reassure investors. He emphasized that this transition requires substantial knowledge and capital-intensive investments, highlighting the importance of “long-term operating leverage.” Nadella also highlighted Microsoft’s expansion of its data footprint and the addition of new AI accelerators from AMD and Nvidia.
“We know how to manage our capex spend to build a long-term asset,” Nadella stated during the call. Meanwhile, CFO Amy Hood noted that a significant portion of Microsoft’s AI spending will be monetized over a period of 15 years and beyond.
Despite reporting a total revenue of $64.7 billion for the quarter, representing a 15% year-over-year growth, Microsoft’s shares experienced a decline of over 6% in after-hours trading. Emarketer senior analyst Gadjo Sevilla pointed out that the earnings report coincided with Microsoft’s response to major cybersecurity incidents, including the recent CrowdStrike outage and a global outage impacting Microsoft 365 and Azure on Tuesday. Sevilla suggested that these recurring failures could have a short-term impact on Microsoft’s reputation.