Microsoft’s selloff is a sign of healthy AI doubts

What’s one measly percentage point between friends? About $US219 billion ($334 billion) if you’re an investor in tech giant Microsoft, and you’re all in on the artificial intelligence revolution.

The US tech giant, which has delivered investors share price growth of about 200 per cent in the past two years, announced on Tuesday night that its June quarter revenue growth in the Azure cloud business had come in at 29 per cent for the three months; the division has become a key barometer of Microsoft’s AI success, given customers need to buy more cloud capacity as they deploy more AI technology.