Microsoft’s board of directors has approved a new share buyback programme of up to $50 billion and a 10 per cent boost toits quarterly dividends, Reuters reported on Monday.

The tech giant declared a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share, reflecting an 8 cent, or 10 per cent increase over the previous quarter. Microsoft will hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on December 10.

The company told investors in July that it planned to ramp up its spending on AI infrastructure and reported a 77.6 per cent rise in capital spending in the quarter ended June 30, with AI- related expenses being reported during the same quarter.

Earlier this month, Microsoft also unveiled several new AI features and upgrades to its Copilot AI assistant and its “Wave 2” event, with new features including general availability of Copilot in Excel, Copilot in OneDrive, and an Outlook feature that summariszes and compares emails.

The quarterly report also highlighted a reduction in growth in the Azure cloud business, adding expectations of a rise were predicted for the second half of fiscal 2025.

Tech giants have been facing pressure from investors as they seek to bank returns from their AI investments.

In May, Apple approved a record $110 billion share buyback program after it reported positive quarterly results.

Microsoft has also supported a range of AI firms, including Open AI.

The most valuable AI startup in the world recently announced that its $6.5 billion financing round will come in the form of convertible notes with the Chat-GPT maker having to remove a profit cap for investors to keep the firm’s value at its current $150 billion, according to a report from Reuters.

Last month, the firm had restructured how it reports result in its business units, moving some search and news advertising revenue under the Azure cloud-computing unit.

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