These two phrasings are the same strategy, five years apart. Microsoft's filings have described an "intelligent cloud" for a long time, but how it attaches AI to that cloud has quietly shifted — and the shift is the story.
Start earlier. The FY2022 10-K describes building "an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge infused with artificial intelligence," language preserved in the sec.gov filing and surfaced via EdgarBeast. AI there is an adjective — the cloud is "infused" with it. It's a feature of the platform, not yet a separately named product.
Now read the current framing. The FY2025 10-K lists "cloud and AI consumption-based services" as part of what Microsoft sells — see the sec.gov filing. The grammar changed: AI moved from an adjective describing the cloud to a noun in the product list, and crucially, it's "consumption-based" — metered, billed by usage.
Connect the dots and the business model reveals itself. "Infused with AI" is a marketing posture; "AI consumption-based services" is a revenue mechanism. The journey between those two phrasings is the journey from AI-as-differentiator to AI-as-meter, where every query and token is a billable event.
The honest caveat: these filings don't break out a standalone AI revenue figure you can quote — AI consumption is bundled inside larger cloud lines, and the disclosures say so by listing it among other services rather than isolating it. But you don't need the number to read the intent. The way a company names a thing in its 10-K, and how that name hardens from adjective to billable noun, tells you where it expects the money to come from.