In the first quarter, Hood told investors the company was seeing growing demand and a rising RPO balance that meant it would increase its chips spending. Meanwhile, Azure growth flattened out, falling from 40% in the first quarter to 39% in the second. In addition, investors will be looking next quarter for signs that the infrastructure spending is justified by revenue growth. Microsoft reported second quarter revenue of $81.3 billion, up 17% from $69.6 billion a year ago, leapfrogging past the company’s guidance of $79.5 billion to $80.6 billion. Moreover, the cloud business cracked $50 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever, hitting $51.5 billion, growth of 26% year over year.