More interesting tidbits in the latest results call from Microsoft - as ever for big tech, some gaming of the numbers perhaps, but also real insights into how AI and cloud are playing out. Overall performance surprised the market (positively), off the back of stronger than expected Azure growth and not just from AI. Other mentions in the earnings call which caught my eye (many also mentioned at last week's Microsoft 365 Community Conference in Vegas):
➡️ More than 230,000 orgs have already used Copilot Studio, incl. 90% of the Fortune 50 (lots of "MyFirstAgent1" no doubt, but nevertheless a solid indicator people are building here)
➡️ Power Platform now has 56 million monthly active users (up 27% year-on-year)
➡️ Azure - 33% growth (16% of that from AI) - so clearly new AI capacity was getting to data centers faster than expected, and AI usage is driving consumption of Azure data & app services
➡️ Windows 11 commercial deployments increased nearly 75% year-on-year (no surprise given the timing)
➡️ LinkedIn - time spent watching videos on the platform was up 36%, and comments were up 32% YoY (so whatever you think of LI, it's continuing to grab a chunk of online discussion space)
➡️ Paid M365 commercial seats grew 7% YoY to over **430 million**
Aside from revenue, sales were up higher than expected *driven by an Azure commitment from OpenAI* - so while MSFT and OpenAI compete on tools (ChatGPT and Copilot), a reminder that those with the AI picks and shovels can't help but win in the end. On the flip side, OpenAI are now allowed to use other cloud providers beyond Microsoft for their infrastructure, so future share of consumption from OpenAI specifically may decline. OpenAI not the only players in town though.
As Satya said recently, the muscle Microsoft built over 50 years isn't really just in software, cloud, services, or even just tech - it's reinvention
