(Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images)

Here’s what to look for in today’s Microsoft earnings report

All eyes will be on Microsoft’s Azure cloud revenue growth, and just how much it’s increasing its capital expenditure.

1/28/26 12:12PM

Today after market close, Microsoft will report its second-quarter earnings. Demand for the company’s Azure AI cloud computing is white-hot, and the company can’t keep up. All eyes will be watching Azure’s revenue growth, which analysts expect to be around 38.4%.

Let’s take a look at some of the other areas worth watching.

Signs of slackening demand for AI?

With gargantuan data centers popping up all over and seemingly insatiable demand for more AI infrastructure, fears of an AI bubble persist. Last month, reports emerged that Microsoft had lowered internal AI growth targets due to weak customer demand. We’ll be looking to hear what CEO Satya Nadella has to say about this.

Cozying up to Anthropic

Over the past quarter, Microsoft has been drawing closer to its partner Anthropic. Yes, Microsoft has a huge $13 billion deal with OpenAI, but recently it has been using Anthropic’s AI tools more in its own products, and Nadella has been encouraging more employees to use AI in their work.

It was recently reported that Microsoft was on track to spend $500 million per year on Anthropic AI services. Microsoft also recently invested another $5 billion in Anthropic, along with Nvidia.

But Microsoft is also reportedly spooked about how well Anthropic’s Claude Cowork tool is able to work with Microsoft’s own apps, eclipsing the performance of its own Copilot 365 tool.

Data centers and capex

Microsoft’s data center build-out got some attention from President Trump, as the company pledged to pay its own way for the electricity it uses and to be a good neighbor. But according to internal documents, The New York Times reports that water usage at the company’s data center has doubled.

Last quarter, Microsoft revised its capex outlook and said it will be spending more in FY 2026 to help catch up on its massive $392 billion backlog of booked computing. Microsoft also recently announced huge investments in AI infrastructure in Canada ($13.7 billion) and India ($17 billion).

Look as well for more info about Microsoft’s custom chips. This week, the company announced that its new second-generation Maia 200 AI chip delivers “30% higher performance than alternatives for the same price.”

Microsoft sits at the center of the sprawling tech world, and has unique visibility on how AI uptake is going in both the consumer and enterprise world. It also sees what AI computing demand looks like on the back end through its popular Azure cloud computing platform serving customers large and small. This quarter’s earnings release should offer some valuable signals about where we are in the AI boom.

Chris Stokel-Walker

Bot bias

6/17/26

Companies are getting AI chatbots to smear their competitors

The race to influence AI chatbots is leading to some companies to adopt shady competitive tactics.

Tom Jones6/17/26

Prediction markets have, predictably, been given a boost by the summer of sports

Major platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen huge upticks in users of late, thanks in no small part to what’s felt like a recent sporting smorgasbord, with major competitions across hockey, basketball, and soccer soaking up fans’ time (and spending, clearly) at the outset of summer.

While gaming industry groups may not like it, there’s been a huge change in the methods people are using to put money on the big games, with everyone from fortunate NYC bar owners, to a far less fortunate Spanish supporter, turning to prediction markets to try and turn their sports know-how into cold, hard cash.

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

2026 World Cup Reverses Seasonal Lull for Sports Betting Apps

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

South by Southwest Conference and Festivals

Gold Tesla Cybercabs are piling up, but they’re not picking up passengers yet

Low-volume production started in April. Now people are noticing them more and more in the wild.

Rani Molla6/15/26

Millie Giles

TAKING ACCOUNTS

6/15/26

Britain announces social media ban for under-16s starting early 2027

The UK government plans to use the same model for the restrictions as Australia — but how successful has that case study been so far?

UK Prime Minister Announces Under-16s Social Media Ban

Jon Keegan6/15/26

Anthropic pulls Fable and Mythos access worldwide after Trump administration bars their use by foreign nationals

Only days after releasing two versions of its next-gen AI model, Anthropic has disabled them for users worldwide.

Anthropic says it received a Friday night order from the Trump administration to suspend access to the models for any foreign national (anywhere in the world) — a group that included some Anthropic employees. In response, the company turned off access to everyone.

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5