Microsoft Corp on Tuesday, January 26, reported its Azure cloud computing services grew 50%, the second quarter of acceleration in a business that had begun to slow as the global pandemic benefited the software maker's investment on working and learning from home.
On a conference call with investors, Microsoft executives said they expect a midpoint of $14.83 billion in revenue from the company's"Intelligent Cloud" segment for the fiscal third quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations of $14.12 billion, according to Refinitiv data. For the company's productivity segment and its personal computing segment, sales are expected to have a respective midpoint of $13.48 billion and $12.50 billion, compared with estimates of $12.
"This was really driven by continued customer demand, with stronger-than-expected consumption as customers have increased their focus on digital transformation," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood told Reuters in an interview. Commercial cloud gross margins – a measure of the profitability of its sales to large businesses – were 71% in the quarter, compared with 67% a year earlier.