- Hill sparks Dolphins comeback in wild NFL opening day
- Sinner sweeps to US Open title for second Grand Slam triumph
- Smith heroics for England remind Collingwood of Gilchrist
- Thousands protest Mexican judicial reform
- Nissanka leaves Sri Lanka in sight of third Test win over England
- Kendrick Lamar to headline 2025 Super Bowl halftime show
- Thousands defy roadblocks in rally for Pakistan ex-PM Khan
- Roglic wins record-equalling fourth Vuelta
- Russia advances in east Ukraine, launches deadly air strikes
- Cowboys quarterback Prescott agrees record $240 mln extension
- Swiss double in Paralympic wheelchair marathons, Dutch women retain basketball title
- New 'Beetlejuice' creeps its way to top of N.America box office
- South Africa captain Kolisi leaves Racing 92: French Top 14 club
- Funeral for slain athlete Cheptegei in Uganda on Sept 14
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- Smith hits back after England collapse against Sri Lanka
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- Venezuela's Gonzalez Urrutia: from placeholder to opposition pointman
- Marquez thanks rain for San Marino MotoGP win as leader Martin pays for gamble
- Boeing, union reach preliminary deal to avert Seattle-area strike
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- Trump, Harris tied on eve of televised presidential debate
- Paris Paralympics the greatest ever, say former Olympics executives
- Pope exit revives Sri Lanka's hopes in third Test against England
- Gunman kills 3 Israelis at West Bank crossing as Gaza war rages
- Marquez wins San Marino MotoGP as leader Martin pays for rain gamble
- Greece to hike fee for cruise passengers to Mykonos and Santorini
- Carsley's 'refreshing' England overhaul launches new era
- Swiss double in wheelchair marathons on final day of Paralympics
- France's Le Pen urges Macron to hold referendum to break deadlock
- Typhoon Yagi weakens, toll rises to 14 in Vietnam
- India's Randhir Singh elected Asian Olympic chief
- Under pressure, UN winds down 'unique' Iraq probe into IS crimes
- 'Proud' athletics great Weir calls time on marathon Paralympic career
- 'Brave' Afghanistan can beat anyone, says skipper ahead of NZ Test
- Vaughan warns England against 'taking the mick' after Sri Lanka collapse
- England's Moeen Ali retires from international cricket
- Japan's Hirata holds off inspired Smyth to win on Asian Tour
- China's Paralympic domination fails to ignite enthusiasm back home
- Sporting a feathered headdress, Pope finds 'Eden' in Papua New Guinea
- Super Typhoon Yagi toll rises to 9 in Vietnam after landslide
- Indonesian villagers dress corpses in ritual for the dead
- Williamson expects 'phenomenal' Root to keep breaking records
- The end of Olympic escapism for gloomy France
- Amy Adams gets real about motherhood in 'Nightbitch'
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- Wallabies 'fell of cliff' in loss to Pumas, says coach Schmidt
- Child abuse scandals hang over pope's East Timor visit
Microsoft cloud unit miss dulls bright earnings
Microsoft shares slipped Tuesday after the tech giant reported quarterly profit climbed but its crucial cloud computing unit missed expectations.
Microsoft said it made a profit of $22 billion on $64.7 billion in revenue in the recently ended quarter, up from the same period a year earlier.
Cloud unit revenue of $36.8 billion, however, disappointed investors and shares slid more than five percent to $401.06 in after-market trades.
Money brought in from cloud computing has driven blockbuster earnings quarter after quarter, and a hint that stellar growth may be slowing was enough to give investors pause.
Microsoft is among the major contenders in the fierce race to build out artificial intelligence systems, pouring billions of dollars into the technology in the hope it will pay off.
Microsoft is among the best positioned to monetize generative AI, having moved the fastest to implement it across all its products, and pouring $13 billion into OpenAI, the start-up stalwart behind ChatGPT.
Winning the big bet on AI is "crucial" for the group, said Jeremy Goldman of Emarketer, "but the market is willing to give them a level of patience."
The AI frenzy has helped Microsoft's cloud computing business grow in the double digits, which analysts said could be hard to sustain.
"This type of growth cannot hold forever, but the synergies between cloud and AI make it more likely that Microsoft holds onto reliable cloud growth for some time to come," Goldman said.
Revenue from Microsoft's AI-infused "Intelligent Cloud" unit was $28.5 billion, a 19-percent increase from the same quarter a year earlier, according to the earnings figures.
Microsoft's "Azure" drove a strong increase in revenue from server products and cloud services, according to the company.
"We closed out our fiscal year with a solid quarter, highlighted by record bookings and Microsoft Cloud quarterly revenue," Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said in an earnings release.
Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella added that the company is "focused on meeting the mission-critical needs of our customers across our at-scale platforms today, while also ensuring we lead the AI era."
Microsoft reported a net income of $88.1 billion for its fiscal year on revenue of $245.1 billion, up 22 percent and 16 percent respectively.
Money taken in by Microsoft's Xbox video game unit leaped 61 percent, boosted by the acquisition of Activision, according to earnings figures.
Microsoft said costs to attract visitors to its search and news services rose 19 percent, as it enhanced services with AI to better compete with Google.
P.L.Madureira--PC