Jul 31, 2026
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Add us on GoogleThe AI boom keeps unlocking new milestones in computing power with greater frequency. Now tech companies are landing records of their own on Wall Street.
On Thursday, Microsoft’s valuation soared by $450 billion, the largest one-day jump recorded in U.S. stock market history. The staggering sum outpaced the entire stock market value of some emerging economies like Turkey, which had a market capitalization of $404 billion in 2025, per World Bank data. Another example is Poland’s stock market, which was valued at $316 billion last year.
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Microsoft’s extraordinary leap followed an earnings report that allayed fears among investors that hyperscalers were exhausting their cash to power their AI ambitions, at least for now. Microsoft reported $90 billion in revenue for the quarter ending in June, an 18% increase from the first quarter.
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Then its share prices rallied and approached its highest levels for the year so far. On Friday afternoon, Microsoft traded at about $463 per share, a roughly 19% increase from Wednesday when the software company posted its earnings.
Microsoft’s robust performance
Analysts already expect Microsoft to post stronger results for the third quarter. Consensus in Wall Street is coalescing around $95 billion in revenue for the third quarter.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement that revenue from its Azure cloud computing platform had surpassed $100 billion for the first time in fiscal year 2026. Azure allows businesses to store their data as well as employ AI tools from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Nadella added that the development reflected the “confidence customers are placing in us to power their AI transformation.” Investors have tracked this piece of Microsoft’s business to determine whether it can turn a flood of AI research and development cash into profitable services.
The company said that it still intends to pour $175 billion on building out its AI capabilities for 2026, a move that aligns with the broader race among tech giants to develop the nascent technology into profit-driving engines of their businesses.
Microsoft added 31 data centers on five continents in the past quarter to bolster their cloud operations, bringing the size of their fleet to 88 total. The company said that customer demand for its cloud computing services continues to outstrip what it can currently supply.
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“AI sovereignty is increasingly top of mind for our customers, and we are expanding our offerings to meet that need,” Nadella said in a Wednesday earnings call.
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The splitscreen with Meta
Microsoft’s historic rally may come close to or even erase its previous losses in share price for this year.
It previously reached a high of $481 per share in January, before investor doubts around AI spending filtered through financial markets and battered the software company’s share prices. Meta, though, has generated growing doubts among investors about the profitability of its AI business.
On Friday, Meta’s stock traded at $551 per share, down 6% from Wednesday when it similarly issued its second quarter earnings report. The company projected weaker cash flows to just under $1 billion, a factor that pushed investors to limit their exposure to Meta and sending its share prices lower.
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Joseph Zeballos-Roig is a policy and politics journalist based in Washington D.C with a focus on economics. He is experienced in connecting the significance of events in the capital to the lives of everyday Americans whether its taxes, tariffs, interest rates or federal programs.
