Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) racked up its best earnings performance since 2018 as business flocked to its Azure cloud-based computing arm.
Azure and its other cloud services grew 50% over last year, said the tech titan, which helped propel revenues in the three months to end September, its first quarter, up by 22% to US$45.3bn and earnings by 48% to US$20.5bn.
Cloud sales jumped by almost $4bn (GBP2.91bn) from a year ago though surprisingly, the windows developer also highlighted the PC as a pandemic winner.
Satya Nadella, chief executive, said “The PC will be more critical than ever.
“There has been a structural shift in PC demand emerging from this pandemic,” he said, adding that it was now forecasting Windows OEM revenue to grow in the next quarter.
Gaming revenue rose by 16% to US$3.6bn, also a record, though Xbox content and services lagged.
