Microsoft Corp. said it will spend more than $30 billion in the current quarter to build out the data centers powering its artificial intelligence services.

Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing business delivered another quarter of blockbuster growth on Wednesday, powering revenue above Wall Street's expectations and showcasing the growing returns on its massive artificial intelligence bets.

Technology giant Microsoft on Wednesday said its profit soared above expectations in the recently ended quarter, driven by its cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) units.

And both Meta and Microsoft were already on track to spend more than 30% of this year’s revenue on capital expenditures, compared with about 15% to 20% historically. Those outlays were already beginning to look like mere table stakes after Google parent Alphabet used its report last week to bump up its own capex spending plans for this year to $85 billion.