Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday that its profit for the October-December quarter grew 10% from the same time last year as it works to capitalize on the huge amounts of money it has spent to advance its artificial intelligence technology.

Microsoft Corp. investors focused on the company’s disappointing revenue of its Azure cloud business on Wednesday, but they should also be looking at another number indicative of future growth: bookings.

Microsoft on Wednesday posted disappointing Azure cloud business growth and large artificial intelligence expenses, hitting its shares as a recent surge in low-cost Chinese AI technology threatens to undermine the case for such big spending.