Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit on Thursday, driven by gains from adoption of artificial intelligence across its cloud services, and the world’s most valuable company’s shares jumped more than 4% in extended trade.
Yuvraj Malik, Anna Tong, and Stephen Nellis for Reuters:
The rise in Microsoft shares after the bell lifted the company’s stock market value by $128 billion as profit and revenue growth overshadowed its higher-than-expected capital expenditures.
“Microsoft’s AI-powered earnings demonstrate that doubling down on innovation is paying off,” said Jeremy Goldman, senior director of briefings at Emarketer, pointing to the company’s early moves in generative AI, such as its large investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
Microsoft revenue rose 17% to $61.9 billion in the quarter ended March, exceeding the consensus estimate of $60.80 billion, according to LSEG data. Earnings per share of $2.94 topped Wall Street’s target of $2.82.
Microsoft’s AI-driven capital expenditures in the third quarter were nearly $1 billion more than analysts’ estimates. Capital expenditures grew from $11.5 billion in the previous quarter to $14 billion, passing estimates of $13.14 billion, according to Visible Alpha.
“We’re continuing to see customer demand grow quite a bit,” Brett Iversen, Microsoft’s vice president of investor relations told Reuters. “And so we’re making sure to scale our available capacity in line with that.”
The stock has soared on Microsoft shipping generative AI (GenAI) tools based on its strategic partnership with OpenAI and also helped it capture the world’s most valuable company crown from Apple this year.
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MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s early moves in GenAI are clearly paying off.
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Microsoft’s new PHI-3-mini AI technology transforms the iPhone 14 into a powerful AI tool, bringing advanced capabilities directly to users’ smartphones without compromising privacy. This compact model, featuring 3.8 billion parameters, operates offline and fits easily into everyday devices, demonstrating performance comparable to larger AI systems like GPT-3.5. With its innovative approach to data optimization and AI efficiency, PHI-3-mini represents a significant leap forward in making sophisticated AI technology accessible and secure for personal use.
Meanwhile, Apple’s “operations genius” is working hard on new LGBTQLMNOP+++ Rainbow Apple Watch Bands.
Tim Cook’s legacy: The Apple CEO who lost the “World’s Most Valuable Company” crown to Microsoft, of all companies, because he lacks vision and never should have been Apple’s CEO, much less for this long.
In his defence Apple also became the world’s most valuable company on his watch. No one else could have milked Steve’s ideas for all they were worth.
Milking someone else’s ideas for all their worth isn’t a rare skillset among tech execs. Tim Cook is probably one of the best at it, but that just stifled creativity even more in exchange for greater marginal profits.
Worked for Trump in the beginning. Then he started thinking!
Apple’s leadership exemplifies a lack of foresight. While the company focused on grand projects like their eco-friendly “spaceship” building, developing an electric car (which they later abandoned), and heavily investing in iPhone upgrades (mainly revolving around screen improvements, better cameras, and faster chips), the rest of the tech world was advancing computational capabilities exponentially.
Now, Apple seeks to spearhead AI innovation by leveraging the groundwork laid by other developers.
This presents objectively verifiable evidence that Tim Cook is diluting Apple’s legacy. It’s time for investors to voice their discontent and demand not just Cook’s resignation but also hold the board accountable for prioritizing short-term gains over sustained innovation.
It’s essential to recognize that Cook’s success in turning Apple into a profit machine is rooted in the company’s history of pioneering transformative products, ones that revolutionize productivity and enhance people’s lives.
I laugh at the cretinous morons here who formerly used be Tim Cook knoblobbers. YEARS ago I called out Cook for the complete and total fraud that he was. At least 5 years ago I saw this clusterfsck coming. And I called him out for that. Cook has always been a completely gutless coward when it comes to innovation. And MDN was stuffed to the gills with Cook sycophants.
I was hammered relentlessly for my comments. Nothing but savage, vicious personal attacks on me. I didnt care. I knew I was right then and I am completely right now. I’m happy that you brain dead drooling morons finally caught up with me.
I was completely right about Tim Cook and the MDN knobslobbers, every last one, were 100% WRONG.
Suck it morons.
Dear Original Mac,
Whether you were right early on or not; your insults and bitterness don’t score you any points in communication skills and the arena of ideas. You could have simply stated your facts without the bitchy victimhood attitude. I’ve been an Apple user since 1981; well before the Mac came out. So what, I don’t claim to be a genius and call those who don’t agree “morons.” Lots of people were concerned about Tim’s absence of creative skills 5 years ago; remember when they pushed out the Maps app prematurely and then got rid of the one truly forward-thinking person who could have taken the reins after Steve died? That was the signal……
Carbon neutral by 2030. Stronger, more colors coming in the revised flax iPhone case. Possible display on the upcoming release of the iPods 4 (taking a pitch from others). So much more….just be patient–IT’S coming.
At least an AI tool will