Microsoft’s Cloud Accelerates to Fastest Growth Since 2022
Speakers
Ed Ludlow
— Co-Host, Bloomberg Technology
Summary
Ed Ludlow reacts to Microsoft's quarterly earnings, highlighting accelerating Azure cloud growth, Copilot AI adoption with 30 million paid seats, and Azure surpassing $100 billion in annual revenue. He notes the stock's positive after-hours move and the market's focus on upcoming capital expenditure guidance.
- Azure cloud revenue grew 43%, the fastest since early 2022 and above estimates.
- Azure annual revenue crossed $100 billion for the first time in the fiscal year.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot paid seats rose to 30 million from 20 million at end of March.
- The stock reacted positively in after-hours trading on the tangible AI metrics.
- The street remains focused on whether CapEx growth will align with Azure top-line growth.
- Alphabet was mentioned as a highly analogous peer in the cloud and AI space.
Ideas
Azure and AI momentum accelerating.
Microsoft's Azure cloud growth accelerated to 43%, surpassing $100B in annual revenue for the first time, and Copilot paid seats jumped from 20M to 30M, providing tangible evidence of AI adoption and supporting the stock's positive reaction.
Up Next
This Bloomberg Markets video, published July 29, 2026, features Ed Ludlow discussing MSFT. 1 trade idea extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.