Google and Microsoft close the quarter above expectations driven by artificial intelligence and the cloud, and soar on Wall Street. Mountain View gains up to 14% after the quarterly report and the announcement of its first dividend, as well as a strengthening of the buyback plan to 70 billion dollars.
Alphabet, the holding company that controls Google, closed the first three months of the year with revenues up 15% to 69.79 billion dollars and a net profit that jumped by 57% to 23.66 billion.
“Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure positions us well for the next wave of AI innovation,” said CEO Sundar Pichai. Microsoft's revenue in the third quarter of the fiscal year rose 17% to 61.86 billion, while net profit increased to 21.94 billion from 18.30 billion in the same period last year.
Revenues from Azure rose by 31%, accelerating compared to the 30% of the previous three months, while those from commercial cloud products increased by 23% to 35.1 billion.
The above-expected results push Microsoft shares, which gain up to 6%. Positive quarter also for Snap, the holding company that owns the disappearing message app Snapchat, which rose by 32% in after-hours trading. The first three months of the year closed with revenues growing by 21% to 1.19 billion dollars and losses decreasing to 305.1 million dollars. For the second quarter, Snap expects revenues of 1.23-1.26 billion, above forecasts.
«Given the progress we have made with our advertising platform, the team we have built and the strategic priorities set – Snap highlighted -, we believe we are well positioned to continue to improve our performance».