Azure just cleared $100B a year — and it's still up 41%

Azure is now a $100-billion-a-year business on its own — up 41% from last year's $75B, per Satya Nadella. Q4 was the fastest part of it: Azure grew 43%, blowing past CFO Amy Hood's own 39–40% guide, and pulling Intelligent Cloud to $39.3B (+32%). Full-year Microsoft revenue landed above $331B (+18%), with Microsoft Cloud at $214B (+27%). Copilot paid seats hit 30 million.

The interesting number isn't the $100B, it's the bill. Capex and finance leases hit $41B in Q4 alone — up 69% — with guidance for $50B+ in the September quarter and roughly $175B across calendar 2026. That's what's compressing free cash flow even as the top line beats. Microsoft is still supply-constrained, not demand-constrained: Hood guided to ~45% Azure growth at constant currency next quarter, above the ~41% street consensus.

So the AI-infrastructure trade is now measurable in both directions. Azure crossing $100B is proof the compute is being sold, not just built. The counterweight is that Microsoft has to spend a year of Azure revenue and then some to keep the growth rate at 40%+ — a treadmill that only works while enterprise AI demand keeps outrunning datacenter capacity.

Why it matters: the hyperscaler AI bet has stopped being a forecast — the revenue is real, and so is the cash it eats.