Microsoft Corp. said it will spend more than $30 billion in the current quarter to build out the data centers powering its artificial intelligence services.

Microsoft forecast on Wednesday a record $30 billion in capital spending for the current fiscal first quarter, after booming sales in its Azure cloud computing business showcased the growing returns on its massive bets on artificial intelligence.

Microsoft significantly exceeded earnings expectations for the June quarter and disclosed its standalone annual Azure revenue for the first time — providing new clarity into how it stacks up against Amazon and Google in the cloud.

Microsoft surpassed a $4 trillion market valuation for the first time after a strong earnings report, driven by AI and cloud growth.

Microsoft revealed for the first time that Azure, the engine of its AI ambitions, now pulls in more than €65 billion a year — cheering investors. View on euronews

Shares in artificial intelligence heavyweights Microsoft and Meta Platforms both surged in European trading on Thursday, after blowout quarterly results after-market on Wednesday. Meta shares surged 12.

And both Meta and Microsoft were already on track to spend more than 30% of this year’s revenue on capital expenditures, compared with about 15% to 20% historically. Those outlays were already beginning to look like mere table stakes after Google parent Alphabet used its report last week to bump up its own capex spending plans for this year to $85 billion.