Microsoft forecast on Wednesday a record $30 billion in capital spending for the current fiscal first quarter, after booming sales in its Azure cloud computing business showcased the growing returns on its massive bets on artificial intelligence.

Microsoft Corp. said it will spend more than $30 billion in the current quarter to build out the data centers powering its artificial intelligence services.

Azure's performance places Microsoft firmly behind Amazon Web Services, which remains the global leader in cloud infrastructure with annual revenue exceeding $111 billion. However, Azure's growth