Big Tech: Microsoft, Meta beat forecasts, calm investor jitters

STORY: Tech giants Microsoft and Meta have shaken off fears of an unsteady economy or AI slowdown, for now at least.Both of them beat analyst forecasts on Wednesday.Microsoft’s Azure cloud division in particular grew by a third over the quarter.The company says about half of that was contributed by AI - news that could ease worries about a slowdown in demand for the new tech. Some analysts had previously pointed to canceled data-center leases by Microsoft as a sign of excess capacity.Now the company says it sees strong growth ahead for the cloud business, forecasting some $29 billion in revenue.Its shares jumped around 7% in after-hours trade on the news of the results.Meanwhile, Meta beat estimates with $42 billion in revenue last quarter.It also said its daily active users across Facebook, Instagram and the rest of its services rose 6% year-on-year, marking welcome news for advertisers.Meta also said it's planning to spend more as it speeds up building data centers that can support AI.CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said the company would shell out $65 billion this year – the company said yesterday that could now go as high as $72 billion.He said nearly 1 billion people were now using Meta's AI assistant on a monthly basis.

STORY: Tech giants Microsoft and Meta have shaken off fears of an unsteady economy or AI slowdown, for now at least.Both of them beat analyst forecasts on Wednesday.Microsoft’s Azure cloud division in particular grew by a third over the quarter.

The company says about half of that was contributed by AI - news that could ease worries about a slowdown in demand for the new tech. Some analysts had previously pointed to canceled data-center leases by Microsoft as a sign of excess capacity.Now the company says it sees strong growth ahead for the cloud business, forecasting some $29 billion in revenue.

Its shares jumped around 7% in after-hours trade on the news of the results.Meanwhile, Meta beat estimates with $42 billion in revenue last quarter.It also said its daily active users across Facebook, Instagram and the rest of its services rose 6% year-on-year, marking welcome news for advertisers.

Meta also said it's planning to spend more as it speeds up building data centers that can support AI.CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said the company would shell out $65 billion this year – the company said yesterday that could now go as high as $72 billion.He said nearly 1 billion people were now using Meta's AI assistant on a monthly basis.

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