Microsoft earnings test AI monetisation

Microsoft reports fiscal third-quarter 2026 results after the close on Wednesday, April 29, with Azure growth and AI revenue at the center of the stock’s next move. (microsoft.com) The company scheduled its earnings webcast for 2:30 p.m. Pacific time, and Satya Nadella and Amy Hood are set to discuss the quarter ended March 31, 2026. (microsoft.com) Microsoft is coming off a January quarter in which revenue rose 17% to $81.3 billion and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share rose 24% to $4.14. (microsoft.com) That report also gave investors the line they have been testing ever since: Nadella said Microsoft had built an AI business with more than a $13 billion annual revenue run rate. (microsoft.com) For this quarter, the key question is whether that AI demand is showing up fast enough inside Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform that rents processing power, storage and software over the internet. (microsoft.com) Azure is where Microsoft has been disclosing the clearest AI signal: in the March 2025 quarter, Azure and other cloud services grew 33%, with 16 percentage points of that growth tied to AI services. (microsoft.com) The spending side is just as important. Microsoft said in its 2025 annual report that it would keep investing in capital expenditures for cloud offerings and AI infrastructure and training. (microsoft.com) That buildout has already changed the company’s scale. Microsoft said Azure passed $75 billion in annual revenue in fiscal 2025, up 34% from the prior year. (microsoft.com) Investors are also watching how Microsoft frames OpenAI. In the last two quarterly releases, Microsoft broke out non-GAAP results that excluded the impact from its OpenAI investment. (microsoft.com 1) (microsoft.com 2) The company’s own metrics show why recurring cloud demand still matters alongside the AI narrative: commercial remaining performance obligation, a measure of contracted future revenue, stood at $315 billion in the March 2025 quarter. (microsoft.com) Wednesday’s report will show whether Microsoft can keep turning that demand into revenue quickly enough to support one of corporate America’s biggest data-center buildouts. (microsoft.com 1) (microsoft.com 2)