Microsoft announced on Monday that it had increased its quarterly dividend and that its board had approved a fresh share buyback program worth up to $60 billion.

The IT behemoth announced a $0.83 quarterly dividend per share, an increase of 10% over the previous quarter.

The company reported impressive quarterly profitability in July, but this was somewhat offset by a significant rise in capital expenditures as it announced plans to raise its spending on artificial intelligence.

The Azure cloud business's revenue, which represents the returns from artificial intelligence, had decreased during the quarter, but Microsoft predicted that growth would resume in 2025.

The business is rushing to defend the billions of dollars spent on AI over the last 12 months, much like its larger tech competitors. The majority of Microsoft's competitors have not yet demonstrated a sizable return on their AI expenditures.

Microsoft stated it will host its annual shareholders meeting on the 10^th of December.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)