04:59 PM EDT, 10/30/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Microsoft ( MSFT ) late Wednesday reported stronger-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results as the technology giant said its winning new customers amid artificial intelligence emerging as a broader growth opportunity.

Per-share earnings increased to $3.30 during the three months ended Sept. 30 from $2.99 a year earlier, higher than the GAAP consensus on Capital IQ for $3.11. Revenue rose 16% to $65.59 billion, exceeding Wall Street's $64.56 billion view.

"AI-driven transformation is changing work, work artifacts, and workflow across every role, function, and business process," Chief Executive Satya Nadella said in a statement. "We are expanding our opportunity and winning new customers as we help them apply our AI platforms and tools to drive new growth and operating leverage."

The intelligent cloud segment's sales jumped 20% annually to $24.09 billion, driven by a 33% surge in cloud-computing platform Azure and other cloud services, Microsoft ( MSFT ) said.

The productivity and business processes division reported a 12% sales increase to $28.32 billion, buoyed by gains in Office 365 commercial and LinkedIn.

Revenue in the more personal computing unit advanced 17% to $13.18 billion as Xbox sales surged.

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