Microsoft reports 'record fiscal year' thanks to cloud computing surge

Microsoft just demonstrated why it’s the most valuable company in the US as it topped sales and profit projections in its fourth quarter. 

Fuelled by a steady demand for its cloud-computing services and its Windows operating system, the company reported that its sales grew 12% to $33.7bn and that it had $13.2bn in profits during the period.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, described it as a “record fiscal year for Microsoft”.

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"Every day we work alongside our customers to help them build their own digital capability - innovating with them, creating new businesses with them, and earning their trust,” he added. 

“This commitment to our customers’ success is resulting in larger, multi-year commercial cloud agreements and growing momentum across every layer of our technology stack.”

In the fourth quarter, sales of Microsoft’s Office 365 to businesses jumped 31% whilst Azure cloud sales rose 64%.

Microsoft noted that its Intelligent Cloud Segment produced more quarterly revenue than the segments containing Office and Windows for the first time in more than three years.

Elsewhere, revenue from Microsoft’s Surface hardware rose 14%.