Economy

Microsoft beats quarterly estimates but shares fall on rising capital expenditures

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Jan 29, 2026

THE BARE STORY

Microsoft reported fiscal second-quarter results that surpassed analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings per share. For the quarter ending December 31, the company posted revenue of $81.28 billion, a 16% increase year-over-year, and earnings of $4.14 per share, up 28%. Despite these results beating consensus estimates, the company’s stock dropped 6% in after-hours trading.

Investors focused heavily on the company's capital expenditures, which surged 66% year-over-year to $37.5 billion. Management stated that approximately two-thirds of this spending was allocated to chips and hardware to support demand for artificial intelligence and Azure services. While revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew 39%, this marked a slight deceleration from the previous quarter. Executives noted that customer demand for Azure currently exceeds the company's available supply.

Future revenue indicators showed significant growth, with commercial bookings rising 230%. This increase was driven by large cloud commitments from partners OpenAI and Anthropic, contributing to a 110% rise in the company's remaining performance obligations to $625 billion. However, results across segments were mixed; while the Productivity and Intelligent Cloud divisions saw double-digit growth, the More Personal Computing segment revenue fell 3% due to lower gaming sales.

Looking ahead, Microsoft issued revenue guidance for its fiscal third quarter with a midpoint of $81.20 billion. CFO Amy Hood projected that Azure revenue growth would settle between 37% and 38% on a constant currency basis. The company also anticipates that capital expenditures will decrease sequentially in the next quarter due to the timing of cloud infrastructure projects.

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• Surge in capital expenditures triggered a stock sell-off Investors reacted negatively to a 66% year-over-year jump in capital expenditures, which totaled $37.5 billion for the quarter. Despite beating earnings estimates, the company's shares dropped 6% in after-hours trading as market attention focused on the high costs required to support AI and Azure services.

• Cloud growth decelerated despite high investment While Azure revenue grew significantly, the 39% increase marked a slight deceleration compared to the previous quarter. Furthermore, CFO Amy Hood projected that Azure revenue growth would settle between 37% and 38% in the upcoming fiscal third quarter on a constant currency basis.

• Weakness persisted in the consumer computing segment Results across the company's divisions were mixed, with the More Personal Computing segment experiencing a 3% decline in revenue. This decrease was attributed specifically to lower sales within the gaming division, offsetting gains made in productivity and cloud sectors.

How it may affect me

As a U.S. reader: Your retirement savings or investment portfolios holding tech stocks may face short-term volatility following the 6 percent drop in share value despite the company beating earnings estimates.

Access to enterprise cloud and artificial intelligence tools could face temporary capacity limits, as executives report that current customer demand for Azure services exceeds available supply.

You can expect a sustained push for new AI-driven software features in the long term, supported by the company allocating billions specifically toward chips and data center hardware.

Consumer-focused hardware and gaming updates may lag behind business software developments, indicated by a 3 percent revenue decline in the personal computing segment.

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