Microsoft
Microsoft in the enterprise
As of November 5, 2026. Every figure links to its source; company-reported numbers are labeled as such.
Microsoft sells AI to businesses in two main ways. It rents AI computing power and models through its Azure cloud, and it adds AI assistants (Copilot) to software companies already pay for, such as Microsoft 365, GitHub and Dynamics. In its fiscal first quarter of 2027 (July to September 2026), Microsoft Cloud revenue rose 30% to $63.9 billion and Azure grew 48%. Commercial backlog, meaning contracted revenue not yet delivered, rose 73% to $677 billion. Microsoft has also said Azure passed $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time in fiscal 2026. These are company-reported figures.
Microsoft's advantage is distribution: it can sell AI into an existing base of corporate customers. It reported more than 30 million paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats as of July 2026. The number of customers buying more than 50,000 seats is up more than 8x year over year. Large rollouts include NHS England (505,000 staff), EY (400,000), Volkswagen (330,000+ planned) and HSBC (200,000 seats committed). Its developer platform for building AI apps, Microsoft Foundry, now has more than 120,000 customers, and Foundry revenue more than tripled.
What to watch: dependence on OpenAI. Forrester estimates roughly 45% of Microsoft's commercial backlog is tied to OpenAI. In April 2026 an amended agreement ended Azure's role as OpenAI's exclusive third-party cloud, and OpenAI's models are now also sold on Amazon's AWS. Microsoft has hedged by investing up to $5 billion in Anthropic, which committed to buy $30 billion of Azure capacity, and it offers Claude models inside Copilot. Microsoft stopped giving an updated Copilot seat count this quarter, citing usage growth instead, so investors will be looking for fresh seat or revenue figures.
Key numbers
| Measure | Figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Cloud quarterly revenue | $63.9B (up 30% year over year) | FY27 Q1 (Sep 2026) | Microsoft Reports 19% Revenue Growth and 48% Azure Growth in Q1 (Let's Data Science) |
| Azure revenue growth | 48% year over year | FY27 Q1 (Sep 2026) | Microsoft Reports 19% Revenue Growth and 48% Azure Growth in Q1 (Let's Data Science) |
| Commercial backlog (remaining performance obligation) | $677B (up 73%) | FY27 Q1 (Sep 2026) | Microsoft Reports 19% Revenue Growth and 48% Azure Growth in Q1 (Let's Data Science) |
| Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats | 30M+ | FY26 Q4 (Jun 2026, last disclosed) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Passes 30 Million Paid Seats as Cloud and AI Growth Power Record Quarter (UC Today) |
| Microsoft Foundry customers (AI app-building platform) | 120,000+ (Foundry revenue more than tripled year over year) | FY27 Q1 (Sep 2026) | Microsoft Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript (Benzinga via Webull) |
| AI agents registered in Agent 365 | 50M+ (up 30%+ quarter over quarter) | FY27 Q1 (Sep 2026) | Microsoft Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript (Benzinga via Webull) |
What it sells to businesses
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | AI assistant built into Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and other Office apps, sold per employee seat. |
| Microsoft 365 E7 | Top-tier Microsoft 365 bundle that packages Copilot and AI agent tools with the company's office, security and management software. |
| Microsoft Foundry (formerly Azure AI Foundry) | Platform for businesses to build AI apps and agents using models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and others. |
| Agent 365 | Central registry and control panel for tracking, securing and governing the AI agents a company runs. |
| GitHub Copilot | AI coding assistant and agents that write, review and fix software for development teams. |
| Microsoft Fabric | Unified data and analytics platform that prepares company data for reporting and AI. |
Named customers and deployments
| Customer | What they did | When | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| NHS England | Microsoft 365 Copilot for 505,000 clinicians and staff; a trial found 43 minutes saved per employee per day. | Jul 2026 | Microsoft 365 Copilot Passes 30 Million Paid Seats as Cloud and AI Growth Power Record Quarter (UC Today) |
| EY | Rolling out the Microsoft 365 E7 suite to 400,000 employees. | Jul 2026 | Microsoft 365 Copilot Passes 30 Million Paid Seats as Cloud and AI Growth Power Record Quarter (UC Today) |
| Volkswagen | Plans to deploy Copilot to more than 330,000 employees (company-reported). | Oct 2026 | Microsoft Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript (Benzinga via Webull) |
| KPMG | Expanding Copilot across 276,000+ professionals. | Jul 2026 | Microsoft 365 Copilot Passes 30 Million Paid Seats as Cloud and AI Growth Power Record Quarter (UC Today) |
| HSBC | Committed to 200,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot seats. | Jul 2026 | Microsoft 365 Copilot Passes 30 Million Paid Seats as Cloud and AI Growth Power Record Quarter (UC Today) |
| Wells Fargo, Procter & Gamble, Boeing, AstraZeneca, Stellantis and others | Named by Microsoft as customers with more than 60,000 Copilot seats each (exact counts not given). | Jul 2026 | Microsoft 365 Copilot Passes 30 Million Paid Seats as Cloud and AI Growth Power Record Quarter (UC Today) |
| BlackRock, Fiserv, Amadeus, Zeiss and New South Wales Health | Named by Microsoft as new customers for the Microsoft 365 E7 AI suite. | Oct 2026 | Microsoft Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript (Benzinga via Webull) |
Partnerships
| Partner | Deal | When | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI (amended agreement) | Ended Azure's status as OpenAI's exclusive third-party cloud. Microsoft keeps a now non-exclusive license to OpenAI's technology through 2032 and no longer pays OpenAI a revenue share. | Apr 2026 | OpenAI Models, Codex, and Managed Agents Now Available on Amazon Bedrock After Microsoft Exclusivity Ends (TechWyse) |
| OpenAI (restructuring deal) | Microsoft took a 27% stake in OpenAI's new for-profit company, valued at about $135B, and OpenAI committed to buy an additional $250B of Azure services. | Oct 2025 | Microsoft secures 27% stake in OpenAI in new deal with commitment for $250B in Azure usage (GeekWire) |
| Anthropic and Nvidia | Anthropic committed to buy $30B of Azure computing capacity. Microsoft is investing up to $5B in Anthropic and Nvidia up to $10B, and Claude models are offered in Foundry and in Microsoft's Copilot products. | Nov 2025 | Microsoft, Nvidia deepen ties with Anthropic as startup commits $30 billion to Azure (Pure AI) |