Investor concerns over Microsoft's slow AI payoff

Microsoft has said it needs to spend on data centres now to overcome the capacity constraints that are hampering its ability to capitalise on AI demand

Investors fear spending by tech giants on data centres for AI will yield little payoff in the short-term. 

Microsoft investors will have one big question when the tech giant reports earnings on Tuesday: has growth in its Azure cloud-computing business picked up enough to justify the billions of dollars being spent on artificial intelligence infrastructure?

Widely seen as the front-runner in the race to make money from AI, thanks to its tie-up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Microsoft is expected to report that Azure's growth stayed steady quarter-over-quarter at about 31% between April and June, according to data from Visible Alpha.