Microsoft’s UK revenue surged to over $8bn as it added 600 new staffers last year, according to new company filings.
Microsoft said its sales growth was due to an escalating demand for its cloud storage services across the UK market, in a new filing with Companies House for the year ended June 2023.
The turnover of £8.4bn was an increase from the £6.3bn reported in 2022. The company has also continued to generate revenue from software and hardware sales, resulting in a pre-tax profit of £652m.
Its UK workforce, overseen by Clare Barclay, added nearly 600 employees to its ranks in 2023, taking the company’s total headcount to 5,540. The average cost per employee hit £183,000 annually, up from the previous year’s £165,000.
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced it will open a new hub in London to expand its capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the UK.
Last year, it pledged to invest £2.5bn to upskill the UK workforce and improve data centre infrastructure in preparation for the “AI era.”
The news of soaring revenues comes as Britain’s competition watchdog examines its AI plans.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened invitations to comment on whether partnerships between Microsoft and Mistral AI, as well as its arrangements with Inflection AI, “fall within UK merger rules and the impact that these arrangements could have on competition in the UK.”
The watchdog had previously opened an invitation to comment on Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.