Changes in US stocks | Revenue and profit both exceeded expectations+capital expenditure “put the brakes on” Microsoft (MSFT.US) surged more than 12%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Thursday, Microsoft (MSFT.US) opened with a sharp rise. As of press release, the increase was over 12%. According to the news, Microsoft announced financial results for the fourth quarter (Q4) of fiscal year 2026. Revenue increased 18% year over year to US$90.1 billion, 2.6% higher than analysts' expectations. Total revenue for the full fiscal year exceeded US$331 billion, an increase of 18% over the previous year. Among them, Microsoft's cloud revenue surpassed US$214 billion, an increase of 27%. In addition to revenue and profit crushing expectations, Azure's growth rate hit the fastest in four years. More importantly, the company took the initiative to lower its capital expenditure forecast for the 2027 fiscal year from 190 billion US dollars to 175 billion US dollars, easing the market's fear that “AI is burning too much money” in one fell swoop.

At the results conference call, Microsoft executives said that it is estimated that the capital expenditure for the entire 2026 natural year will still be the 190 billion US dollars previously estimated. However, due to changes in accounting methods, the estimated lifespan of data centers and office buildings has been adjusted, and this year's estimated expenditure scale has dropped to about 175 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to nearly 8% lower than 190 billion US dollars.