Microsoft Azure revenue exceeds expectations, stock price rises 2.7% pre-market

Yorkville Ives analysts wrote that Microsoft (MSFT.US)'s financial report shows the company is able to fully capitalize on the huge demand in the cloud computing market. The analysts stated that Microsoft Azure revenue exceeded Wall Street expectations, and the cloud computing business is the key factor affecting Microsoft's stock price performance. Before the release of the earnings report, the market had already clearly seen demand driven by artificial intelligence, but there were still doubts about whether Microsoft could release capacity quickly enough. The analysts wrote that the report shows, "Capacity is already in place, and demand has quickly filled that capacity." Customers are locking in future spending, and Microsoft's committed future spending remains at $677 billion. The analysts pointed out that, compared with previous expectations, the portion of this revenue to be recognized in the next 12 months will increase. On Thursday before the market opened, Microsoft's stock price rose 2.7% against the trend, contrary to the overall decline in tech stocks.