Microsoft reveals Azure revenue in dollars for the first time: $33.2 billion for the quarter

First disclosure in dollars

Microsoft had never before published Azure's quarterly revenue in dollars, limiting itself to growth percentages or vague mentions of milestones. On October 28, after reporting another record quarter, the company said Azure brought in $33.2 billion in revenue for July–September, up 48% year over year. TechCrunch reports this.

Comparison with competitors

The disclosure allows investors for the first time to directly compare Azure with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, which already report in dollars every quarter. Alphabet said the same day that Google Cloud brought in $30.7 billion for the same quarter — Azure came out slightly ahead. However, Google Cloud, which also includes Workspace subscriptions, roughly doubled its revenue year over year, meaning it is growing about twice as fast as Azure, according to TechCrunch's calculations.

Beating expectations and a new segment structure

Azure is Microsoft's largest and fastest-growing business according to the company itself: it accounted for about 36% of the quarter's $92.3 billion in revenue. Azure revenue came in roughly $850 million above analysts' expectations of $32.3 billion, and the 48% growth exceeded CFO Amy Hood's forecast of 44–45%, given on the July earnings call.

Reporting change

Azure is now part of the new Agents and Infra segment — one of two segments Microsoft introduced this quarter in place of the previous three (Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing). The new segment, which combines Azure with the Microsoft 365 cloud business, brought in $76.8 billion, up 25% year over year. Amazon will report on Thursday; analysts also expect AWS growth, which remains the largest cloud, but now all the key players disclose revenue in dollars.