Microsoft’s quarterly revenue forecast, set to be announced Jan. 29, will highlight the impact of its US$80 billion AI investments, particularly on Azure cloud growth.

Azure, a key revenue driver for Microsoft, has experienced slower growth for two consecutive quarters. The second quarter is expected to report a growth of 31.8%, slightly down from 33% in the previous quarter.

However, the company expects a rebound in Azure’s growth for the third quarter, partly due to its ongoing partnership with OpenAI.

Despite competition from DeepSeek’s cost-effective AI model, Microsoft maintains rights to manage most of OpenAI’s consumer and developer traffic, ensuring Azure revenue.

Overall, the intelligent cloud segment is expected to grow by 19.7%. Microsoft’s overall revenue is projected to grow by 10.9%, with net profit growth predicted at 6.3%.

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