04:37 PM EST, 01/28/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Microsoft ( MSFT ) late Wednesday reported stronger-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results, though revenue growth at cloud-computing platform Azure fell short of investor expectations.

Per-share earnings increased 24% year over year to $4.14 during the three months ended December, higher than the consensus on FactSet for $3.91. Revenue rose 17% to $81.27 billion, exceeding Wall Street's $80.31 billion view.

The intelligent cloud segment's sales jumped 29% to $32.91 billion, driven by a 39% surge in Azure and other cloud services, Microsoft ( MSFT ) said.

Azure growth clocked in at 38% on a constant currency basis, below investor expectations that Morgan Stanley put at 40% last week.

Shares were down 3.7% in after-hours trading.

Overall cloud revenue soared 26% to $51.5 billion.

"We are only at the beginning phases of (artificial intelligence) diffusion and already Microsoft ( MSFT ) has built an AI business that is larger than some of our biggest franchises," Chief Executive Satya Nadella said in a statement.

The productivity and business processes division reported a 16% sales increase to $34.12 billion in the second quarter, buoyed by gains in 365 and LinkedIn. The more personal computing unit fell 3% as Xbox content and services revenue decreased.