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MSFT · Forward model · Intelligent Cloud · Bull case

What has to happen in Intelligent Cloud

Model as of

This page changes Intelligent Cloud inside the complete MSFT model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

MSFT forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $648.95 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $112.50B 61% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $208.43B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

The backlog converts and the build pays. Commercial remaining performance obligation is $678B, up 84%, with a weighted average duration of 2.3 years and about 30% expected inside twelve months - roughly $203B, against $332B of total company revenue in the year just ended. That is the strongest forward number Microsoft publishes and it sits entirely outside the growth drivers on this page. This case lets Intelligent Cloud hold a faster pace for longer and carries the margin recovery that comes when revenue catches up with capacity already built. What it does NOT assume is any improvement in More Personal Computing, which follows base and keeps shrinking.

Intelligent Cloud

Basis quarter$39.31B
Final quarter$112.50B
Implied CAGR+23%
Final revenue mix61%

The largest segment for the first time this quarter, and the reason the capital expenditure line has doubled. $39.3B of revenue, up 32%, with Azure and other cloud services up 43% and Azure passing $100B of annual revenue for the first time. Server products, Enterprise Services and GitHub sit alongside it. The operating margin is 40.6% against Productivity's 57.9%, and the gap IS the AI build: this segment consumes most of the $35.8B Microsoft spent on property and equipment in a single quarter, and the depreciation on it lands here first.

Last four quarters
2025 Q3 $30.90B Reported
2025 Q4 $32.91B Reported
2026 Q1 $34.68B Reported
2026 Q2 $39.31B Estimated
Azure and other cloud servicesServer productsEnterprise and partner servicesGitHub
Sequential growth +6.0%/qtr decaying toward +2.5% 6% a quarter against 13% just delivered. Azure grew 43%; no base case should extrapolate that.
Intelligent Cloud

Latest: $112.50B (2031Q2E)

Period Value
2024Q3 $24.09B
2024Q4 $25.54B
2025Q1 $26.75B
2025Q2 $29.88B
2025Q3 $30.90B
2025Q4 $32.91B
2026Q1 $34.68B
2026Q2 $39.31B
2026Q3E $42.29B
2026Q4E $45.32B
2027Q1E $48.40B
2027Q2E $51.52B
2027Q3E $54.70B
2027Q4E $57.93B
2028Q1E $61.23B
2028Q2E $64.59B
2028Q3E $68.02B
2028Q4E $71.53B
2029Q1E $75.13B
2029Q2E $78.82B
2029Q3E $82.60B
2029Q4E $86.49B
2030Q1E $90.50B
2030Q2E $94.63B
2030Q3E $98.88B
2030Q4E $103.27B
2031Q1E $107.81B
2031Q2E $112.50B

Assumptions & reasoning

  • Azure passed $100B of revenue in fiscal 2026 and grew 43% in the quarter against a segment growing 32%, so the non-Azure parts of this segment - server products, Enterprise Services - are growing far more slowly and are being diluted out of it.
  • Microsoft gives no capacity, megawatt or utilisation figure for Azure. It says demand exceeds supply and reports a growth rate, so this line is a growth driver by necessity rather than by choice.
  • This segment carries an assumed 70% of company capital expenditure, which is 63.8% of its own revenue in the basis quarter. Microsoft does not disclose capex by segment; the share is a judgement about where the datacenters are being built.
  • Commercial remaining performance obligation of $678B, up 84%, with a weighted average duration of 2.3 years and about 30% expected within twelve months, is mostly this segment. It is the strongest forward signal Microsoft publishes and it sits outside this model's drivers.
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