Microsoft announced that its search and news advertising revenues climbed by eight per cent year-on-year in its Q2 2024 earnings released overnight.
This growth has been relatively stable over successive quarters for Microsoft, with the firm expanding its business with ChatGPT and the AI-powered Bing browser.
Microsoft’s big bet with AI has continued to pay dividends, following its investment in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, with the company’s overall revenue climbing some 18 per cent year-on-year to $US62 billion ($AU93.94 billion).
“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.
“By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector.”
“Strong execution by our sales teams and partners drove Microsoft Cloud revenue to $33.7 billion, up 24% (up 22% in constant currency) year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.
LinkedIn revenues jumped nine per cent and its Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue grew nine per cent.
Of most significance for Microsoft’s bottom line, however, was that it finally closed its acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard — which produces games such as Call of Duty, Tony Hawk and World of Warcraft. Microsoft paid some $US75.4 billion ($AU114.24 billion) for Activision Blizzard.
During the quarter, Microsoft also laid off 700 LinkedIn staff and is set to cut some 1,900 jobs in its gaming unit — around nine per cent of headcount, following the Activision deal — and it cut some 10,000 jobs earlier in the year.
