MSFT changes
Pick any two versions below to diff them.
- Balance sheet
- Microsoft has the highest credit ratings: AAA from S&P and Aaa from Moody's. Moody's affirmed its rating with a stable outlook on August 21, 2026. Its bond debt is small. At June 30, 2026, it had $46.1 billion face value of senior unsecured notes, with $9.25 billion due in the year to June 2027. Against this, it had $76.8 billion of cash and short-term investments. It issued no new bonds in fiscal 2026. It pays for much of its data center build-out through leases, not bonds. Finance lease liabilities rose to $66.6 billion from $46.2 billion a year earlier, and operating lease liabilities were $21.9 billion. Leases that had not started yet added $329.1 billion of future commitments. In fiscal 2026, operating income of $155.2 billion covered interest expense of $3.05 billion about 50 times. Most of that interest now comes from finance leases. Operating cash flow of $182.9 billion paid for capital expenditure of $115.9 billion, dividends of $26.4 billion and buybacks of $22.3 billion. The balance sheet gives room to keep spending and returning cash. But the lease commitments fix a large part of future costs, even if AI demand does not hold. As of 2026-06-30.
- Checkpoints
- Oct 27, 2026 (estimate): Fiscal Q1 2027 results: Azure growth versus capex. Pending. Watch: Azure growth near the 43% of the June quarter with stable cloud margins passes; a clear Azure slowdown while capex keeps rising fails. Jan 2027 (estimate): Fiscal Q2 2027 results: Copilot uptake and Azure capacity. Pending. Watch: Azure growth that holds near its current pace and rising paid Copilot use pass; slower Azure growth with no sign of new capacity filling fails.