July 30 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) surpassed Wall

Street estimates for quarterly revenue on Wednesday as strong

demand from businesses for artificial intelligence tools drove

steady growth in its Azure cloud-computing unit.

Total revenue rose 18% to $76.4 billion in the April-June

period, the company's fiscal fourth quarter. Analysts on average

expected $73.81 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Azure revenue rose 39%, compared with Visible Alpha estimates of

34.75%.

Big Tech is under pressure to deliver stronger returns on

the hundreds of billions of dollars it has poured into

artificial intelligence, with analysts estimating more than $330

billion will be spent this year, largely on data centers.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares have gained more than 21% in 2025 on

optimism that demand for Azure - crucial for running AI

workloads, especially OpenAI's technology - will remain strong.

The company has also pushed agentic AI, tech capable of

handling routine tasks without human intervention, by launching

a clutch of autonomous agents, including one for GitHub Copilot.

Last week, Alphabet's Google Cloud beat revenue

estimates and lifted full-year capex by $10 billion to $85

billion to support surging demand for its cloud services.

But it joined cloud rivals, including Microsoft ( MSFT ), in warning

that capacity constraints, driven by the limited supply of AI

chips, were hampering its ability to capitalize on the demand.

Microsoft's ( MSFT ) lucrative tie-up with OpenAI that gives it

exclusive access to the ChatGPT maker's technology is also under

scrutiny as the startup shifts some workloads to rivals,

including Google and Oracle.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) has tried to reduce its reliance on OpenAI by

broadening its model lineup with partners such as xAI, Meta

, and France's Mistral, hosting their models on Azure

for clients.

It also rolled out new features to Copilot in April in a bid

to boost adoption, and has moved to shore up the core, non-AI

side of Azure after a slowdown earlier this year.

(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil

D'Silva)