Microsoft reported a 10% increase in quarterly profits Tuesday as it tries to maintain its position as a leader in artificial intelligence technology.
The software giant said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit was $22 billion, or $2.95 per share, slightly beating analyst expectations for $2.94 per share.
It posted revenue of $64.7 billion in the April-June period, up 15% from last year. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had been looking for revenue of $64.4 billion.
Microsoft’s growth was led by its cloud computing business, where quarterly revenue rose 19% to $28.5 billion. That was still lower than what some analysts expected, leading to the stock shedding about 5% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
The Redmond, Washington-based company doesn’t report revenue specifically from AI products but says it has infused the technology into all of its business segments, particularly its Azure cloud computing contracts, but increasingly its workplace software and other products. Much of its generative AI technology has been built as part of its multibillion-dollar investments in OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT.
Revenue from Microsoft’s productivity services – such as its Office line of products – rose 11% to $20.3 billion.
Microsoft’s personal computing business, centered on licensing its Windows operating system, made $15.9 billion for the quarter, up 14% from last year.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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