Microsoft shares rose by 3.6% during premarket trading on Wednesday after the company beat estimates on revenue and earnings per share. The company’s third-quarter revenue of $56.5 billion beat estimates of $54.5 billion. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.99 beat expectations of $2.66 per share along with last year’s $2.35 per share during the same quarter last year.
The company’s Intelligent Cloud segment was a particularly strong performer, generating $24.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. This beat analysts’ estimates of $23.6 billion. The revenue for Azure and other cloud services rose by 29%, outpacing estimates of a 27% growth.
“With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere,” company CEO Satya Nadella announced in a statement. “We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.”