Microsoft Scores Big on Anthropic Investment
Synopsis
The company booked a $3.2 billion gain from Anthropic, highlighting diverging returns from its AI investments.
Microsoft's $3.2 billion investment in Anthropic proved to be a significant positive force in its fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results, aiding a drop in the value of its investment in OpenAI and is also contributing to the growth of Microsoft's cloud business.
The firm's unrealized gain on its Anthropic stake added $0.33 to diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the quarter that ended June 30. Microsoft also had a $600 million cut to its investment in OpenAI, which lowered its quarterly EPS by $0.07.
The investment in OpenAI, although quarterly adjusted, still produced a $5 billion profit in the full fiscal year, adding $0.67 to annual diluted EPS.
Microsoft's revenue also rose to $90.02 billion for the quarter, up 18% from the same strength a year ago, as net income climbed to $34.27 billion, or about 24% higher year over year. In fiscal 2026, the company's revenue totaled $331.8 billion, indicating that demand for its cloud and AI services remains strong.
Azure Growth Supports AI Expansion
In addition to the investment returns, Microsoft was announcing that for the first time in the company's history, Azure earned over $100 billion in annual revenue. Azure and other cloud services revenue grew by 39% year over year in the June quarter, and total Microsoft Cloud revenue amounted to $59.3 billion, which is a 27% increase.
The company also said it had $678 billion in commercial remaining performance obligations, another gauge of its future contracted revenue from enterprise customers. Microsoft Azure is currently the world's second largest cloud infrastructure platform, behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud is third, according to Synergy Research Group. The three remain the biggest part of the global cloud infrastructure market.
AI Investment Strategy Broadens
The new figures are the company's latest sign of a strategy to invest in a variety of AI developers while scaling up its own AI services under Azure. In addition to its collaboration with OpenAI, Microsoft has also backed Anthropic and integrated access to several AI models into its Azure AI platform, providing enterprise users with more options to deploy AI-powered applications.
The overall economy remains on the upswing, with companies continuing to invest in AI infrastructure. Gartner's latest forecast report 'Forecast Analysis: IT Spending, Worldwide' projects global IT spending will hit $6.37 trillion in 2026, up 14.2% from 2025, and data center systems will make up a big portion of enterprise technology spending, along with cloud services and AI software.
By the way of the CEO's words, Satya Nadella said that organizations are increasingly adopting AI across their business operations, and Microsoft is continuing to grow its cloud infrastructure to meet the increasing demand.
The company's recent results highlight that the revenue from AI investments across various businesses continues to be a significant driver of the company's profitability, alongside its ongoing expansion in the cloud market.
Source: TechCrunch
Pooja Malik is a business journalist with over six years of experience covering startups, entrepreneurship, and emerging trends. She has previously worked with leading media platforms such as YourStory Media and BW BusinessWorld, where she reported on business, policy, and market developments. Currently, she serves as Editor at The Inspirepreneur Magazine, where she writes and edits stories across business, lifestyle, and travel, with a focus on clarity, accuracy, and reader relevance.
