Microsoft Beats Forecasts With $92.3bn Quarter as It Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Staff

Microsoft added billions of dollars to its stock market value on Wednesday afternoon after reporting quarterly revenue and profit that beat expectations. The results came only days after the company offered voluntary buyouts to roughly 60,000 employees.

In a securities filing, the company said it booked $92.3bn in total revenue for the September quarter, along with more than $36.6bn in profit. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast about $90.6bn in revenue and $35.1bn in profit.

Growth was driven largely by Azure, the company's cloud computing division, which expanded by 48% over the quarter. Chief executive Satya Nadella said in a statement: "We are delivering greater capability, choice, control, and cost-efficiency for customers across our entire stack."

The earnings report arrived two days after Microsoft extended the voluntary buyout offer to about 60,000 workers, roughly a quarter of its workforce. The move comes as the technology company invests heavily in artificial intelligence.

It is the second such program this year. In April, Microsoft gave seven percent of its US workforce the option to retire early. Regulatory filings show the company had 223,000 employees worldwide at the end of June, down from 228,000 at the end of 2025.

Microsoft has also been expanding its hardware range. Earlier this month it announced a new Surface Ultra laptop that runs on Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips and carries a price tag above $2,500. Apple announced a similar touchscreen MacBook this week.

The launches reflect a wider push among technology firms to release devices capable of handling more AI computing directly on the device and offline. That approach would let users avoid depending solely on remote cloud datacenters, where running AI is slower and more expensive.