Add to Google Preferred Sources1
Microsoft will start disclosing quarterly revenue for its Azure cloud unit for the first time, part of a broader restructuring that reduces its operating segments from three to two. The new Agents and Infra segment will include Azure and Microsoft 365 cloud products, while Devices and Consumer will cover search, advertising, Xbox, devices, and Windows licensing. The change puts Azure on a more direct comparison footing with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, both of which already report standalone revenue. The redefinition also narrows Azure’s scope by excluding GitHub cloud services, Security Copilot, and healthcare cloud products. Microsoft will provide two years of recast financials and adjusted guidance, but will stop reporting costs and margins for the old segments. The company said Microsoft 365 Copilot has surpassed 30 million paid seats.
Key Elements
Microsoft will begin disclosing quarterly revenue for its Azure cloud unit, ending years of investor frustration over the company’s practice of revealing only a growth rate for the business that has become central to the artificial intelligence boom.
The change, unveiled in a presentation on Wednesday, is part of a broader restructuring that collapses Microsoft’s three operating segments into two: Agents and Infra, and Devices and Consumer. The move puts Azure’s financials on a more direct footing with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, both of which already report standalone sales figures.
The new Agents and Infra segment will house Azure, Microsoft 365 cloud products, productivity and server licensing, industry solutions, and what the company describes as frontier and support services. Devices and Consumer will encompass search and advertising, the Xbox gaming business, device sales, and Windows operating system licenses sold to hardware makers.
“There’s no question AI represents a profound shift in both technology and business,” CEO Satya Nadella wrote in the presentation. “It is changing what we build and how we operate, and it is blurring the boundaries between our products and reshaping our business models.”
Microsoft had maintained its previous three-segment structure since 2015. While the company began offering actual Azure sales figures on an annual basis last year, it had until now withheld quarterly revenue, providing only the year-over-year growth rate that analysts and investors tracked closely.
Amazon has reported AWS revenue since 2015, and Alphabet followed suit for Google Cloud in 2020. AWS generated $128.7 billion in sales during calendar 2025, underscoring the scale of the market in which Microsoft now offers more granular disclosure.
A Cleaner Definition of Azure
The redefinition also narrows what counts as Azure. Under the new structure, GitHub cloud services, developer cloud services, the Security Copilot assistant, and healthcare and life sciences cloud products will be excluded from the Azure figure.
“Under this reporting structure, Azure becomes more purely our consumption-based platform and infrastructure business,” Nadella wrote.
That represents a reversal of a trend that began in 2021, when Microsoft started reporting growth for “Azure and other cloud services,” a metric that gradually absorbed revenue from the GitHub and Nuance Communications acquisitions. The broader definition made it harder for investors to isolate the performance of the core cloud infrastructure business.
Microsoft’s cloud operation has been among the biggest beneficiaries of the AI spending wave, as companies turn to major infrastructure providers for access to the models needed to build agents and other AI tools. Analysts at Stifel estimated in July that roughly half of Azure’s revenue growth in the 2026 fiscal year came from OpenAI, which relies heavily on Microsoft’s cloud for training and inference workloads. Anthropic has also increased its dependence on Microsoft’s infrastructure.
The relationship with OpenAI has evolved, however. OpenAI previously used Microsoft exclusively for model training, but changes to the terms of their agreement have allowed the AI company to work with AWS and other providers.
AI Assistants Take Center Stage
Inside the Agents and Infra segment, Microsoft will be able to highlight momentum from its expanding lineup of AI assistants, including Microsoft 365 Copilot for commercial customers and the GitHub Copilot coding agent.
The company said in July that Microsoft 365 Copilot had surpassed 30 million paid seats, up from more than 20 million in April, a trajectory that will now be more visible within the consolidated segment reporting.
Microsoft is providing two years of recast financial results and adjusted guidance to help investors transition to the new structure. The company will stop showing costs and operating margins for the three legacy segments, a reduction in disclosure that some analysts may view as a trade-off for the added transparency on Azure revenue.
| Reporting Segment | What It Includes |
|---|---|
| Agents and Infra | Azure, Microsoft 365 cloud products, productivity and server licensing, industry solutions, frontier and support services |
| Devices and Consumer | Search and advertising, Xbox, device sales, Windows OEM licensing |
Note: The previous three-segment structure had been in place since 2015. Microsoft will provide two years of recast financials under the new format.
The restructuring comes as investors have increasingly scrutinized the economics of AI infrastructure spending. Hyperscalers including Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet have poured tens of billions of dollars into data center capacity, and the ability to compare Azure’s revenue directly against its two largest rivals gives Wall Street a sharper lens on whether that investment is translating into top-line growth.
For Microsoft, the disclosure shift also signals confidence. Companies typically avoid breaking out business lines they would prefer to keep obscured, and the decision to isolate Azure’s consumption-based revenue suggests management is comfortable with the story the numbers will tell.
The first results under the new structure are expected when Microsoft reports its next quarterly earnings, giving analysts their first clean look at how Azure’s core infrastructure business is performing against AWS and Google Cloud in an intensely competitive market.
Once added, BigGo Finance appears first in Google Search Top Stories, so you get the broadest, most up-to-the-minute, and most comprehensive global financial news first.
