By Deborah Mary Sophia and Joel Jose (Reuters) -Investors punished Microsoft with a 6% share drop on Thursday as hefty AI bets failed to drive a big increase in its cloud revenue, while Meta rose 4% after CEO Mark Zuckerberg assured Wall Street about growth with promises of a "really big year".

Microsoft CEO Nadella expects a growth rate of 175 percent with AI business alone. The current figures are solid, but the outlook is weaker.

Microsoft has shared a temporary fix for a known issue that causes classic Outlook to crash when writing, replying to, or forwarding an email.

Microsoft shares fell in Europe on Thursday after it issued a downbeat forecast for its cloud business, while Facebook parent Meta shares rose after beating expectations, as investors scrutinised the companies' spending on artificial intelligence.