Microsoft joins $4 trillion club

NEW YORK: Microsoft soared past $4 trillion in market valuation on Thursday, becoming the second publicly traded company after Nvidia to surpass the milestone following a blockbuster earnings report.

The technology behemoth forecast a record $30 billion in capital spending for the first quarter of the current fiscal year to meet soaring AI demand and reported booming sales in its Azure cloud computing business on Wednesday. Shares of Microsoft were up 6.6% at $546.33 in morning trading.

"It is in the process of becoming more of a cloud infrastructure business and a leader in enterprise AI, doing so very profitably and cash generatively despite the heavy AI capital expenditures," said Gerrit Smit, lead portfolio manager, Stonehage Fleming Global Best Ideas Equity Fund. Redmond, Washington-headquartered Microsoft first cracked the $1-trillion mark in April 2019.


Its move to $3 trillion was more measured than technology giants Nvidia and Apple, with AI-bellwether Nvidia tripling its value in just about a year and clinching the $4-trillion milestone before any other company on July 9. Apple was last valued at $3.11 trillion.