{"id":11129,"date":"2026-10-29T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?p=11129"},"modified":"2026-10-29T10:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:12:07","slug":"microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Microsoft<\/a>\u2019s cloud business is giving investors something rare in this AI cycle: growth that comes with spare cash. After the company\u2019s fiscal first quarter ended in September, its shares rose more than 5 per cent in after-hours trading, helped by a forecast that beat expectations.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsofts-ai-cloud-surge-lifts-backlog-to-625b-as-azure-growth-accelerates\/\">Azure revenue<\/a> reached $33.17 billion, slightly above analysts\u2019 $32.84 billion estimate, and the cloud unit grew 48 per cent. Total revenue climbed about a fifth to $92.28 billion, and adjusted profit came to $4.89 a share against a $4.73 consensus. Looking ahead, Microsoft guided Azure growth of 49 to 50 per cent for the next quarter, plus overall sales of $96 billion to $97.1 billion. Both figures sit above Wall Street\u2019s averages.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The more telling number sits below the revenue line. Microsoft produced $18.6 billion in free cash flow, roughly $10 billion more than analysts expected, because capital spending landed under its own plan. It spent $45.2 billion on <a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsofts-data-center-leases-top-130b-this-quarter\/\">data centers<\/a> and equipment, against a $50 billion projection.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Investor relations chief Jonathan Neilson blamed late deliveries of third-party capacity, not a change of course. That distinction matters, since Microsoft has only spent $118.1 billion so far this calendar year. Hitting its $175 billion forecast would require $56.9 billion in the final three months.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Rivals tell a different story. <a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/alphabet-rally-gains-ground-as-cloud-security-bet-reframes-ai-spending\/\">Alphabet<\/a> posted negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion as spending surged, and its shares fell 8 per cent in extended trading even though cloud sales doubled. Meanwhile, Oracle said spending should peak this fiscal year and next, and it promised no more than $20 billion in extra AI financing through fiscal 2030. Big Tech overall is expected to pour more than $700 billion into AI buildouts this year, so lenders and shareholders are watching debt closely.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">CEO Satya Nadella offered a notable view of demand. He said the \u201cshiny-object stuff is waning,\u201d and that wide groups of customers now plan AI spending over a decade, rather than a few giant buyers ordering quarter by quarter. He wants breadth, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft\u2019s cloud business is giving investors something rare in this AI cycle: growth that comes with spare cash. After the company\u2019s fiscal first quarter ended in September, its shares rose more than 5 per cent in after-hours trading, helped by a forecast that beat expectations. Azure revenue reached $33.17 billion, slightly above analysts\u2019 $32.84 billion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20624,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8587,1927,1772,8586,8588],"class_list":["post-11129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ai-capital-spending","tag-ai-cloud","tag-microsoft-azure","tag-microsoft-earnings","tag-satya-nadella-ai-demand"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash - Web Hosting News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash - Web Hosting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Microsoft\u2019s cloud business is giving investors something rare in this AI cycle: growth that comes with spare cash. After the company\u2019s fiscal first quarter ended in September, its shares rose more than 5 per cent in after-hours trading, helped by a forecast that beat expectations. Azure revenue reached $33.17 billion, slightly above analysts\u2019 $32.84 billion [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Web Hosting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-29T15:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-29T14:12:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justine Juyad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justine Juyad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash - Web Hosting News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-29T15:00:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-29T14:12:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Web Hosting News\",\"description\":\"Cloud and web hosting industry daily news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3\",\"name\":\"Justine Juyad\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Justine Juyad\"},\"description\":\"HostingDiscussion.com senior reporter\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/author\/justine-juyad\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash - Web Hosting News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash - Web Hosting News","og_description":"Microsoft\u2019s cloud business is giving investors something rare in this AI cycle: growth that comes with spare cash. After the company\u2019s fiscal first quarter ended in September, its shares rose more than 5 per cent in after-hours trading, helped by a forecast that beat expectations. Azure revenue reached $33.17 billion, slightly above analysts\u2019 $32.84 billion [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/","og_site_name":"Web Hosting News","article_published_time":"2026-10-29T15:00:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-29T14:12:07+00:00","author":"Justine Juyad","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justine Juyad","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/","url":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/","name":"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash - Web Hosting News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T15:00:29+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-29T14:12:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/microsoft-shows-investors-an-ai-cloud-business-that-still-generates-cash\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Microsoft shows investors an AI cloud business that still generates cash"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/","name":"Web Hosting News","description":"Cloud and web hosting industry daily news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3","name":"Justine Juyad","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Justine Juyad"},"description":"HostingDiscussion.com senior reporter","sameAs":["https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/"],"url":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/author\/justine-juyad\/"}]}},"views":13,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20624"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11130,"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11129\/revisions\/11130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}