India, July 30 -- Microsoft reported strong quarterly earnings as its heavy spending on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure started showing results, with faster growth in its Azure cloud business.

Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform, recorded 43% revenue growth in the latest quarter. This was the fastest growth for Azure in about four years and was higher than Wall Street's expectation of around 40%. Azure's strong performance is important because investors closely watch its growth to judge whether Microsoft's huge AI investments are actually bringing in more revenue.

Microsoft spent $41 billion on capital expenditures during the quarter, including building AI data centers and buying computing equipment. This was about a...