Microsoft reported earnings after the close of trading Wednesday, beating with its results but forecasting a slowdown in its cloud business for the current quarter.

"In Azure, we expect Q2 revenue growth to be 31% to 32% in constant currency, driven by strong demand for our portfolio of services," said CFO Amy Hood on the company's earnings call. The figure is down from 34% in the first quarter.

Microsoft Corp. shares dropped the most in two years after the software maker forecast slower quarterly cloud revenue growth, reflecting the company’s struggle to bring data centers online fast enough to keep up with demand for artificial intelligence services.