US multinational technology major Microsoft saw its revenue rise 2% in the October-December period of last year, marking the slowest increase in the firm’s history since 2016.

Total revenue came in at $52.7 billion for the period, which the company refers to as the second quarter for the 2023 fiscal year.

Its cloud revenue, however, jumped 22% to $27.1 billion year-on-year, while revenue from LinkedIn rose 10%, but personal computing revenue decreased 19% to $14.2 billion.

Net income declined 12% to $16.4 billion compared to the same period of last year.

“The next major wave of computing is being born, as the Microsoft Cloud turns the world’s most advanced AI modelsinto a new computing platform,”Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said in the financial results statement.

Amy Hood, Microsoft’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the company continues to invest to drive growth.

The financial results come less than a week after Microsoft announced that it will lay off 10,000 workers by the end of September, which amounts to less than 5% of its total workforce, while the tech industry struggles with financial difficulties.

Despite the decline in net income and slow increase in revenue, the results managed to beat market expectations and Microsoft saw its stock price jump more than 9% in after-hours trading.

(Anadolu Agency)