As Microsoft investors await quarterly earnings this month, another metric is becoming more important which is finance leases.

Finance leases allow the technology giant to pay for assets over several years rather than all upfront. For shareholders of big companies like Microsoft, which are building huge data centers to handle artificial intelligence workloads, big numbers should become something like a norm.

In July, the technology giant told investors in a footnote of its annual report that financial leases, which have yet to actually begin, had grown to $108.4 billion. This figure is $20.6 billion more than the indicator for the previous quarter. Also, the mentioned amount is $100 billion more than two years ago.

Leases will begin between fiscal years 2025 and 2030 and continue for up to 20 years.

Overall, Microsoft’s capital expenditures totaled $19 billion in the last quarter. It is worth noting that this amount includes assets acquired under financial leases. The corresponding figure rose from $14 billion in the March quarter, amounting to as much as Microsoft spent in the entire fiscal year 2020. Charles Fitzgerald, a former Microsoft manager, suggests that there is an insane ramp in this case.

Investors will get more information about Microsoft’s lease finances when the technology giant releases its fiscal first quarter results in the second half of October.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft and other major technology companies have approved capital expenditure increases over the past two years. Often, the respective decisions are related to projects and efforts in the artificial intelligence industry.

As we have reported earlier, Microsoft Plans to Relaunch AI-Powered Recall Offering.