Microsoft has revealed how much money the flagship cloud platform will make.

Azure Cloud Business is central to efforts to move Microsoft’s focus to artificial intelligence, but until Wednesday the company had not revealed how much money it would make.

This revelation came in the software giant’s year-end revenue report. This marked a 24% surge in the company’s quarterly profit, in delighting Wall Street expectations and investors, indicating that Microsoft is wary of the ongoing construction of new data centers that are expensive to meet cloud computing and AI demand.

“We continue to expand our own data center capacity faster than our other competitors,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a phone call from investors, boasting that there are currently more than 400 vast facilities on six continents.

Microsoft’s fourth quarter earnings were $34.3 billion, or $3.65 per share, defeating analyst expectations at $3.37 per share.

It recorded revenue of $76.4 billion from April to June, an increase of 18% from last year. Analysts voted by Factset Research were looking for revenues of $73.86 billion.

Microsoft launched Azure more than a decade ago, but the service is intertwined with AI ambitions as it seeks to sell AI chatbots and other tools to customers in large companies that also rely on core online services.

It’s still chasing behind its major competitors, Amazon Web Services reported revenue of $107.6 billion for the fiscal year ended December.

Building infrastructure to power cloud and AI technology is expensive, and Microsoft is looking for savings elsewhere. It has been announced Layoffs of approximately 15,000 workers Even if those profits have skyrocketed this year.

Nadella told employees last week that the layoffs “has been heavy” on him, but also positioned them as an opportunity to rethink the company’s mission in the AI era.

Still, the overall workforce has not changed. The company said it had employed 228,000 full-time employees as of June 30. This is exactly the same amount as a year ago, but is now based in the US, with fewer product support roles and consulting services.

The promise of a more lean approach is welcomed on Wall Street, especially as Microsoft and other tech giants are trying to justify the enormous amount of capital expenditure to pay for data centers, chips and other components needed to power AI technology.

Google After releasing revenues last week, he said it would increase its capital expenditure budget by another $10 billion to $85 billion. Microsoft’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, said he expects capital expenditures to be $30 billion for the July-September quarter.

Microsoft did not disclose Wednesday to the extent that US tariffs would affect revenues, but its annual report lists tariffs among the many risks facing the company.

“Increasing geopolitical instability and changing US management priorities create an unpredictable trade landscape,” the company said. He also said, “U.S. tariff volatility can cause economic uncertainty and impact the competitiveness of supply chain costs for cloud and devices.”