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. Shares of the software company rose 9 per cent in extended trading after it said Azure sales surpassed $75 billion on an annual basis, the first time it has disclosed that figure, beating expectations for $74.62 billion. Microsoft's higher-than-