Microsoft's cloud recovery is outshining rivals

In the race to rebound from a two-year slowdown in spending on cloud computing, Microsoft Corp. is pulling ahead of its chief rivals, Amazon.com Inc. and Google.

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Microsoft's Azure cloud business posted 29% sales growth in the September quarter, faster than analysts estimated, in part because of corporate customers' interest in new artificial intelligence products.

In its own report the same day earlier this week, for the same period, Google parent Alphabet Inc. struck a more subdued tone, saying that cloud clients are still in cost-cutting mode. And on Thursday, Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud-revenue picture was mixed, with sales slightly less than projected and operating income ahead of analysts' predictions. Microsoft which is number two in the market, behind Amazon but ahead of Google-noted that it took cloud market share from competitors, but didn't say which.