Microsoft Increases Spending on A.I. as Profit Jumps 31%

Microsoft’s spending on artificial intelligence is still going up, but unlike other big technology companies, it appears to have an answer for worries that the returns do not justify the cost.

On Wednesday, Microsoft said it spent $41 billion on capital expenditures, including data centers, in the three months that ended in June, up 69 percent from a year earlier. Microsoft also said its spending hit $145.3 billion in its 2026 fiscal year, which also ended in June.

At the same time, Microsoft’s profit for the quarter was $35.8 billion, up 31 percent. Revenue was $90 billion, up 18 percent.

Revenue at Azure, the company’s cloud computing service, which lets businesses rent computer power, storage and A.I. tools, drove much of the growth, surging 43 percent. Analysts had expected growth of about 40 percent, the same as the previous quarter. Investors watch the figure as the clearest sign of whether Microsoft’s A.I. spending is translating into revenue.

Azure’s revenue for the fiscal year surpassed $100 billion for the first time, “reflecting the confidence customers are placing in us to power their A.I. transformation,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in a statement.

The company’s results exceeded Wall Street’s projections of $87.6 billion in revenue and $31.5 billion in profit, sending Microsoft’s shares up more than 7 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.