microsoft today released its fiscal third-quarter report for 2026, with all key metrics beating market expectations. as of march 31, the company’s total revenue reached $82.886 billion, up 18% year over year (15% at constant currency); net income attributable to shareholders was $31.778 billion, up 23% year over year; and diluted earnings per share were $4.27, also up 23%. operating cash flow for the quarter totaled $46.679 billion, underscoring the company’s robust cash-generating capability.
by business segment, productivity and business processes contributed $35.013 billion in revenue, up 17% year over year, with microsoft 365 commercial cloud revenue growing 19%, consumer cloud revenue surging 33%, and linkedin and dynamics 365 increasing by 12% and 22%, respectively. the intelligent cloud segment delivered particularly strong performance, generating $34.681 billion in revenue, up 30% year over year, with azure and other cloud services posting a remarkable 40% increase. the more personal computing segment reported $13.192 billion in revenue, a slight 1% decline year over year. overall, microsoft’s cloud business generated $54.5 billion in revenue, up 29% year over year, while annualized revenue from the ai business has surpassed $37 billion, a whopping 123% increase year over year, making it the core driver of this round of growth.
this quarter, microsoft returned $10.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. thanks to its continued deep investment in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, the company is demonstrating strong growth momentum in the era of intelligent computing, with overall results significantly exceeding analysts’ prior forecasts.
