Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares rose 4. 0% in premarket trading on Thursday after the company reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue and earnings above Wall Street expectations, supported by growth in its Azure cloud computing business.

Microsoft has never disclosed Azure's quarterly revenue in dollars. But for the first time, we can see just how close it is getting to besting the biggest competitor in the market, AWS.

Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing business, was a key contributor to the results, recording revenue growth of 48%, well above the market forecast of 44.3%. However, investors also weighed the company's capital expenditure, which came in below expectations because of delays in third-party capacity deliveries.

There was a lot to digest from Wednesday’s earnings reports from Microsoft and Google, long the No. 2 and 3 players in cloud computing, respectively. But let’s start with the most interesting takeaway: Google’s cloud unit revenues are now within spitting distance of Microsoft’s Azure cloud

The Windows-maker’s announced a smoking 48% year-over-year revenue growth for its Azure cloud computing division in its earnings call.