Microsoft, Google gain after AI fuels cloud computing demand
BNN Bloomberg
Microsoft Corp. and Google owner Alphabet Inc. sent a clear message to investors on Thursday: Our spending on artificial intelligence and cloud computing is paying off.
The companies trounced Wall Street estimates with their latest quarterly results, lifted by a surge in cloud revenue — fueled in part by booming use of AI services. Shares of the companies rallied. Alphabet was up 12 per cent and Microsoft gained 4 per cent in premarket trading Friday in New York.
The tech titans have been locked in a fierce battle for dominance in the field of artificial intelligence, with Microsoft joining forces with startup OpenAI to challenge Google’s two-decade stranglehold on internet search. But Thursday’s results showed there’s ample room for both companies to grow.
Silicon Valley has hailed 2024 as the year that companies will begin to deploy generative AI — technology that can create text, images and videos from simple prompts. In back-to-back earnings calls, Alphabet and Microsoft executives said the programs are driving more business for their cloud computing units.
