Microsoft Azure cloud revenue tops $100B in fiscal year

Microsoft reported its fiscal-year 2026 results on Wednesday, with Azure cloud revenue crossing $100 billion（約16兆円） for the first time in the full year ending June 30. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, highlighted this achievement as central to the company's growth story, noting that Azure's quarterly growth rate reached 43%, exceeding the prior quarter's pace.

The broader picture shows Microsoft's overall quarterly revenue rose 18% to $90 billion（約14兆円）, with Microsoft Cloud revenue (the company's primary cloud offering) coming in at $59.3 billion（約9.5兆円）, up 27% year-over-year. Analysts at Emarketer attributed this strength to AI dependencies, noting that the cloud business is becoming increasingly central to Microsoft's financial performance. A key driver of this momentum is Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI-powered suite of features integrated into Office applications. Copilot added 20 million paid users in the most recent quarter and crossed 30 million paid seats for the first time.

Outside of cloud, Microsoft's search advertising business posted 10% growth (or 9% in constant currency), driven by higher revenue per search on Bing and Edge, though this represents a slowdown from the prior quarter's 12% growth. The More Personal Computing division, which houses search, saw Windows OEM and devices decline 7% and Xbox decline 10%, underscoring that advertising is now the primary growth driver in this segment.

Microsoft's investment portfolio also contributed to results. The company's stake in Anthropic, an AI safety company, returned a $3.2 billion（約5100億円） gain for the quarter. This gain, combined with Microsoft's existing stake in OpenAI, helped push net income to $35.8 billion（約5.7兆円） for the quarter. For the full fiscal year ended June 30, Microsoft reported total revenue of $331.8 billion（約53兆円） and net income of $133.7 billion（約21兆円）.

Microsoft's Azure milestone of $100 billion（約16兆円） in annual revenue marks a significant inflection point for the company's cloud and AI strategy. The body emphasizes that this achievement stems directly from sustained investment in data centers and the acceleration of AI-driven revenue streams. The 43% growth rate for Azure in the quarter—exceeding the prior quarter's pace—suggests that demand for cloud infrastructure supporting AI workloads is intensifying, not plateauing.

The rapid adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which added 20 million paid users in a single quarter to reach 30 million total, demonstrates that enterprise customers are moving beyond pilot programs into sustained deployment. This metric is particularly noteworthy because the body notes that the company "typically" does not break out cloud revenue separately, implying that Nadella's decision to highlight the Azure milestone reflects its strategic importance. The $59.3 billion（約9.5兆円） Microsoft Cloud quarterly revenue (up 27% year-over-year) underscores that AI is not a marginal growth driver but a primary engine for the cloud business.

Financially, Microsoft's Anthropic stake returning $3.2 billion（約5100億円） in a single quarter adds an unexpected but material dimension to the company's AI exposure. Combined with its OpenAI stake and the strength of Azure, this suggests that Microsoft's diversified bets on AI infrastructure and applications are yielding returns across multiple vectors.

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