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Microsoft Australia’s revenue has soared by 20 per cent to $7.5 billion for the year ended 30 June 2023.
The technology behemoth also posted a 30 per cent increase in post-tax profit, ending the financial year with $174 million.
According to its financial results, Microsoft Australia paid $120.7 million income tax, a 9.6 per cent increase over the previous year.
During the 12-month period, Microsoft’s cost of inventory consumed also increased by a fifth, rising by 21 per cent to $6 billion.
Its employee benefits expenses also rose by 18.5 per cent to $970 million while its outsourcing and agency expenses fell by 12 per cent to $41 million.
In April, Microsoft appeared to be making significant layoffs across Australia and New Zealand as the global economy faced significant headwinds.
However, the financial year also saw Microsoft make enormous investments into artificial intelligence, including its own tool CoPilot and new partner incentives to promote AI integrations.
The vendor’s filing comes shortly after its announcement that it will be investing $5 billion in expanding its hyperscale cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Australia over the next two years.
The funding, which is the largest investment Microsoft has ever made for Australia, is going to a myriad of projects, chief of all being the expansion of its computing capacity by approximately 250 per cent, which the tech giant claimed will allow the company to meet growing demand for cloud computing services. This capacity, in turn, will be needed to pave the way for AI development and usage.
