RECORD PROFITS, FEWER DESKS! Microsoft says profit for the three months to the end of September jumped to more than $36.6bn, just days after it announced plans to cut its workforce, the BBC reported.
On Monday the company said it would offer buyouts to around 60,000 workers to cut costs while it pours billions into artificial intelligence. It employs more than 220,000 people worldwide, and the voluntary redundancy offer covers teams in Canada, India, the UK and the US.
Quarterly revenue hit $92.3bn, up 19% from a year earlier, driven by a 30% jump in Microsoft Cloud revenue. Shares rose almost 2.9% in after-hours trading in New York on Wednesday.
The company also flagged risks, including its “substantial investments” in AI. Chief executive Satya Nadella said AI is delivering “real-world impact across every industry.”
Not everyone had a party: Google owner Alphabet’s shares fell 9.75% after it reported a 25% drop in quarterly net profit and said it will keep spending heavily on AI. Amazon, Meta and Alphabet are expected to spend more than $700bn this year on AI chips and data centres.
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.
Sources: BBC News
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