ALBAWABA – on Wednesday, Microsoft stock soared helping the company hit a $3 trillion market value for the first time, making it the second ever company to reach this milestone right after Apple, the most valuable company in the world, both companies have been switching places back and forth with Microsoft taking Apple’s place earlier this month.
Microsoft’s stock went 1.7 percent up towards $405.63, before it corrected down $402.56, making the total value of the tech giant $2.99 trillion. The company has enjoyed a 7 percent year-to-date increase in value and about 57 percent last year, experts attribute this to investors’ optimism with Artificial intelligence technology, which Microsoft has recently been putting a lot of focus on.
Last year, Microsoft announced its partnership with OpenAI, creator of the infamous Large Language Model ChatGPT, with a $10 billion deal, total investments are rumoured to be about $13 billion since 2019, which helped bring OpenAI's latest GPT4 tech into Microsoft’s Windows Operating System, dubbed Co-Pilot, meant to merge AI with Windows and Azure cloud platform.
Co-Pilot’s integration with Microsoft’s services like Office 365 and Windows, targets common users to speed up their workflow, with the ability to use AI to prepare presentations in PowerPoint, assist in writing paragraphs in Word and summarize web pages in Edge, among other features that Microsoft believes would transform the way computers are used today. Co-Pilot also saw the launch of a mobile app for Android and iOS by the end of 2023.
Microsoft's Copilot app on a phone screen (Shutterstock)
This milestone is also considered to be a reflection of Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella’s strategies for the company, which saw the acquisition of LinkedIn, GitHub, Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, and Xamarin, in the recent decade, helping it conquer the digital services field after its attempts with the Microsoft phone trembled.
Next week, Microsoft is expected to announce its Q2 fiscal 2024 financial report, giving investors a much clearer idea of how its AI ventures are holding up and whether it is the anticipated forerunner in the blooming industry.
