Sales at Alphabet and Microsoft are slowing as customers cut back on their technology spending.

In its latest earnings report covering the past three months to the end of September, Microsoft said that sales rose by 11 per cent to $50.1 billion, the slowest growth in revenue for five years.

Microsoft said that there are 20 per cent more monthly Windows users than before the pandemic. Operating expenses increased 15 per cent to $1.7 billion driven by investments in cloud engineering, LinkedIn, Nuance, and commercial sales.

Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft said: “In a world facing increasing headwinds, digital technology is the ultimate tailwind.”

He added: “In this environment, we’re focused on helping our customers do more with less, while investing in secular growth areas and managing our cost structure in a disciplined way."

At Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, sales rose by six per cent to $69 billion over the past three months to the end of September. Profits dropped by almost 30 per cent to $13.9 billion, as advertising revenue from YouTube declined.

Commenting on the news Sundar Pichai chief executive of Alphabet and Google, said: “We’re sharpening our focus on a clear set of product and business priorities.”

He added: “Product announcements we’ve made in just the past month alone have shown that very clearly, including significant improvements to both Search and Cloud, powered by AI, and new ways to monetise YouTube Shorts. We are focused on both investing responsibly for the long term and being responsive to the economic environment.”

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