By Bruce Clayton
Publication Date: 2026-10-29 00:07:00
Microsoft’s profit jumped 32% to $36.6 billion for the quarter ending in September, beating Wall Street expectations.
Revenue reached $92.3 billion, marking an increase of 19% compared to a year earlier.
The big picture: The company invested $45.2 billion in capital expenditures, mainly for expanding data centers to support artificial intelligence, up about 30% from last year.
- Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing service, led the growth with sales up 48% to $33.2 billion and is expected to rise further next quarter.
- CEO Satya Nadella reported Microsoft added 24 data centers across five continents in the latest quarter due to strong demand.
State of play: Microsoft offered buyouts to about 60,000 employees – roughly a quarter of its workforce – but expects only a small fraction to accept.
- Earlier in the year, Microsoft cut roughly 4,800 jobs and 20% of its Xbox workforce and closed some game studios.
- In contrast to Meta and Alphabet, which…