Microsoft sales on Cloud Nine
Microsoft announced Thursday that it raked in $110 billion in the 2018 fiscal year – the first time it’s eclipsed $100 billion in the history of the company.
The milestone largely stems from the tech giant’s investment in its cloud business. Their commercial cloud arm pulled in almost $7 billion in Q2 – a 53 percent year-over-year increase. In fact, this year saw a 14 percent increase in revenue from 2017.
According to Synergy Research Group, Microsoft now has a higher public cloud market share than Google and only falls behind Amazon. Stifel Brad Reback says, “It’s no longer a three-horse race,” says Brad Reback, an analyst who tracks Microsoft at Stifel. “It’s Microsoft and Amazon, with Google a distant third.”
Analysts report that cloud computing sales will reach $160 billion in 2018 and $277 billion in just three years, and Microsoft is reaping the benefits of that. Microsoft’s stock has risen over six percent in the past 30 days, almost 12 percent in the past three months, and almost 45 percent in the past year.
Microsoft’s bet on their cloud is certainly paying off for them and will continue to do so for years to come if the research is accurate. Amazon might need to invest more money into its cloud arm if it hopes to fend off the tech giant.
Featured image via Flickr/Mike MacKenzie
