Read the definition slowly, because Microsoft chose every word. The company's Q3 FY2026 Form 10-Q (filed 2026-04-29) describes "Server products and cloud services, including Azure and other cloud services, comprising cloud and AI consumption-based services." The phrase "AI consumption-based" sits inside the Azure definition itself. EdgarBeast surfaced the language.
"Consumption-based" is the load-bearing term. It means revenue scales with usage — more inference, more tokens, more training jobs, more revenue. For a market trying to size the AI opportunity inside Azure, Microsoft's own definition is the cleanest official acknowledgment that AI usage is a metered, revenue-generating component of the cloud line.
The same filings carry the warning. An earlier Microsoft 10-Q states that the costs to "support cloud-based and AI services" "will reduce the operating margins," and that whether the company succeeds "depends on" execution. Management is telling investors, in the document, that AI is both a revenue driver and a margin headwind at once.
What the filing does not provide is a standalone "AI revenue" line — AI consumption is folded into the broader cloud services definition. So the disclosure is definitional and directional, not a segmented number, and anyone quoting an Azure-AI dollar figure is estimating. The 10-Q on sec.gov is primary; EdgarBeast is the index.