Microsoft announces one of the biggest buyback programme in its history

Microsoft has announced its biggest-ever share buyback program. Under this programme, the tech giant has approved buyback options of up to $60 billion and has even announced an increase in its quarterly dividend of 10%. The company's board of directors approved these measures during a recent meeting. In addition to the financial updates, Microsoft also revealed that its annual shareholders meeting will be held on December 10.

In July, the company said that it would be investing more in AI infrastructure in this financial year.Microsoft also reported a significant increase in capital spending during the quarter that ended June 30 and noted that this surge was primarily driven by AI-related expenses.
While Microsoft confirmed a slowdown in the growth of its Azure cloud business during the recent quarter, the company expects growth to accelerate in the second half of fiscal 2025, a Reuters report noted.
Investors are closely watching big tech companies like Microsoft and Google as they invest heavily in AI as there is pressure on these companies to get a return on their AI investments, the report added.
As per the report, Microsoft is one of the few major companies that disclose the contributions of AI to their quarterly earnings. This transparency provides insights into the impact of AI investments on the company's performance.
Last month, Microsoft restructured its business unit reporting as the company announced that it would include search and news advertising revenue under the Azure cloud-computing unit.
In May, Apple also announced a record $110 billion share buyback program following strong quarterly results.
Microsoft's stock price saw a slight increase in after-market trading following the announcement. This year the company’s stock has risen nearly 15%.
Recently, Microsoft introduced new features and tools to enhance its generative AI suite and make it more accessible as well as valuable for business workers.
These new additions include automated agents, expanded capabilities for Copilot assistants, and a collaborative tool for multiple workers to interact with AI.
Microsoft also said that it will be rolling out a new feature for Copilot's chat application called Pages, which will allow coworkers to work together using data they create and content generated by the AI software.
Additionally, the company also introduced a tool to automatically organise inboxes and summarise messages. Microsoft has shared customer examples and statistics to demonstrate the impact of its Copilots, with Vodafone being one example of a company that has paid for its workers to use these AI assistants.