Microsoft announced on Monday that its board has approved a new share buyback program worth up to $60 billion. Additionally, the tech giant declared a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share, reflecting an 8-cent (or 10%) increase from the previous quarter.
Microsoft will hold its annual shareholders meeting on December 10. The company previously revealed in July that it plans to increase spending on AI infrastructure this fiscal year, reporting a 77.6% surge in capital expenditures for the quarter ending June 30, primarily due to AI-related investments.
Although Microsoft's Azure cloud business experienced slower growth in the same quarter, the company expects growth to accelerate in the second half of fiscal 2025. Major tech firms like Microsoft and Alphabet are under investor scrutiny to demonstrate returns on their substantial investments in AI infrastructure.
Microsoft stands out as one of the few companies that report AI contributions in their quarterly earnings, while many others have yet to see significant returns from their AI efforts.