Microsoft sales beat estimates as customers prepare for AI rollout

Washington, Oct. 24 (BNA): Microsoft on Tuesday beat Wall Street estimates for fiscal first-quarter results in all segments, with its cloud computing and PC businesses growing as customers anticipate using its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings.

Microsoft, which has heavily backed and collaborated with OpenAI, has yet to roll out most of the products based on its work with the ChatGPT creator. But enthusiasm among corporate technology buyers for features like the ability to summarise heaps of email into a few bullet points or speedily complete lines of computer code helped the company’s revenue rise 13% to $56.5 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30. That compares with analysts’ consensus estimate of $54.52 billion, according to LSEG data, Reuters reported.

 

Microsoft said search and news advertising revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, increased by 10%.

The company forecast sales of $18.8 billion to $19.1 billion for the business segment containing LinkedIn, mostly above expectations of $18.83 billion, according to LSEG data.

R.S.