Microsoft faces Azure test Apr 29

Microsoft reports fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday, April 29, and investors are zeroing in on one line: Azure growth. (microsoft.com) The company’s investor relations page says Chief Executive Satya Nadella and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood will host the call after the market closes on April 29. (microsoft.com) Microsoft’s last quarter set a high bar. On January 28, the company reported fiscal Q2 revenue of $81.3 billion, up 17%, and said Azure and other cloud services revenue rose 39%. (microsoft.com) Microsoft also said Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $51.5 billion in that quarter, up 26%, while commercial remaining performance obligation climbed 110% to $625 billion. (microsoft.com) That leaves April 29 as a readout on whether artificial-intelligence demand is turning into faster cloud revenue, not just bigger infrastructure spending. Microsoft’s reported cloud gross margin slipped to 67% in fiscal Q2 from 68% a quarter earlier. (microsoft.com) The timing makes the comparison unusually direct. Amazon has scheduled its first-quarter 2026 earnings call for April 29, the same day Microsoft reports. (ir.aboutamazon.com) Alphabet is also due that day. Its investor site says it will hold its first-quarter 2026 financial results conference call on April 29. (abc.xyz) The last reported numbers from Microsoft’s two biggest cloud rivals were mixed in scale but strong in direction. Amazon said AWS sales rose 24% to $35.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, while Alphabet said Google Cloud revenue growth accelerated 48% and passed a $70 billion annual run rate. (ir.aboutamazon.com) (abc.xyz) Microsoft’s quarter will also be read alongside its artificial-intelligence buildout. Nadella said in January that Microsoft had already built an AI business “larger than some of our biggest franchises,” even as investors kept asking how quickly that demand would show up in Azure and margins. (microsoft.com 1) (microsoft.com 2) By Wednesday night, investors should have fresh numbers from Azure, AWS and Google Cloud within hours of one another. That will turn Microsoft’s report into a simple scorecard: whether Azure is speeding up again or still easing off last quarter’s pace. (microsoft.com) (ir.aboutamazon.com) (abc.xyz)