Markets
US-TECHNOLOGY-MICROSOFT-computers-AI
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (Jason Redmond/Getty Images)

Microsoft joins the $4 trillion club, plans to spend over $30 billion on capex this quarter

Microsoft’s blowout FY25 Q4 earnings powered a surge in shares making it the second $4 trillion company, joining an elite club shared only by Nvidia.

Microsoft had a blowout fiscal fourth quarter, beating estimates for earnings and revenue. In premarket trading, shares surged over 8%, pushing the valuation above $4 trillion, an elite club only shared with Nvidia.

On the earnings call last night, CEO Satya Nadella summed up the company’s impressive fiscal year performance:

“It was a very strong close to what was a record fiscal year for us. All up, Microsoft Cloud surpassed $168 billion in annual revenue, up 23%. The rate of innovation and the speed of diffusion is unlike anything we’ve seen.”

Like Nvidia, Microsoft’s surging valuation is powered by white-hot demand for AI computing. The legacy tech giant has nimbly positioned itself for success in a fast-moving, young AI industry:

  • 🤝 It has a big (if strained) partnership with market leader OpenAI.

  • ☁️ Most importantly, Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform and massive data centers (over 400 of them) are AI-model-agnostic — they will sell computing for pretty much any company and any AI model or application.

Indeed, Azure’s performance was a big driver of growth for the quarter, with Azure (and other cloud services) revenue growth increasing 39% year on year.

For the first time, the company revealed how much money Azure has made: more than $75 billion in annual revenue.

That number could have been even higher if supply weren’t an issue.

“While we brought additional data center capacity online this quarter, demand remains higher than supply,” CFO Amy Hood said.

The demand is so high for Microsoft’s cloud computing services that it has a significant contracted backlog — $368 billion worth.

To catch up with that demand, Hood said on the earnings call last night that the company continues to spend huge on capex: “We expect Q1 capital expenditures to be over $30 billion driven by the continued strong demand signals we see.”

But Hood cautioned that the capex seen in FY25 might not be the norm:

“Capital expenditure growth, as we shared last quarter, will moderate compared to FY25 with a greater mix of short-lived assets. Due to the timing of delivery of additional capacity in H1, including large finance lease sites, we expect growth rates in H1 will be higher than in H2.”

Update (10:23 a.m. ET): a previous version of this piece attributed Google’s AI model to Microsoft.

More Markets

See all Markets
Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan is surrounded by NBA Championship trophies after his team defeated the Utah Jazz 90-86 to win the 1997 NBA Finals at the United Center in Chicago, IL.

Stock climb on US-Iran peace deal; semiconductors rally

This morning, President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war.

markets

Intel surges after Trump announces US chip deal with Apple

Intel is soaring in early trading after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple has agreed to work with the semiconductor giant to design and manufacture its chips domestically.

President Trump positioned the agreement as the latest victory for his administration’s industrial policy after the federal government acquired a 9.9% equity stake in Intel last year.

"Stupid Presidents took our Economy for granted, and let Taiwan and others steal our Semiconductor Factories," Trump wrote in the post. "We design everything, but we need to BUILD it here, NOW! So I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America... and, finally, Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America."

Intel reportedly reached a preliminary agreement back in May to manufacture chips for the Apple, which has been facing supply constraints for its iPhone as well other products. The deal could help Apple reduce its reliance on longtime partner TSMC by bringing more of its chip manufacturing stateside.

"This partnership helps Apple with chip development and manufacturing on US soil with greater focus on reducing dependence on Asian manufacturing facilities." Wedbush's Dan Ives commented in a company report. He has a $400 price target for Apple this year.

The timing aligns with Intel's technical roadmap. Earlier this week, Intel confirmed that its advanced, performance-boosted 18A-P process node officially entered its risk production phase. This move serves as a blueprint for both Intel chips and processors the company plans to build for foundry customers.

“The current capacity crunch is probably emboldening customers to give Intel a harder look at this stage than perhaps they might ordinarily be inclined to do as the prospect of more advanced capacity will take on higher value in a constrained environment,” wrote Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon. “We are sure that Trump’s encouragement is at least not going to hurt though.”

Momentum was built around Intel Foundry services as surging global AI demand continuously outpaced capacity. Earlier this month, Google reportedly placed an order with Intel to manufacture more than 3 million of its increasingly popular tensor processing unit chips in 2028. According to the report, Nvidia is also testing to see if Intel could manufacture its next-gen Feynman chips.

markets

Stocks rise after US, Iran sign peace plan

Stocks rose Thursday morning after President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war, in another sign that a months-long war that caused energy prices to spike could be coming to an end.

Trump signed the MOU before a dinner in Versailles, France on Wednesday evening. The president previously announced that a deal had been reached on Sunday evening, saying that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would resume and that the US naval blockade would be lifted.

The deal comes after both sides exchanged attacks last week, escalating tensions to some of the highest levels since the US and Israel struck Iran in late February.

The price of Brent Crude ticked even lower after dropping on Sunday, sitting at about $76 a barrel. Oil giants like Shell, Chevron and Exxon fell on the news, as average gas prices in the US dropped below $4 for the first time in months.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% and 1.5%, respectively. Last week, inflation readings for May showed both wholesale inflation and consumer prices rose in large part because of higher energy costs.

Signs of the peace deal have also lead to buying of momentum stocks this week. iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETFrose another 1.46% in premarket trading.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC and Chartr Limited produce fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and are fully owned subsidiaries of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Money, LLC, Robinhood U.K. Ltd, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, Robinhood Gold, LLC, Robinhood Asset Management, LLC, Robinhood Credit, Inc., Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC and, where applicable, its managed investment vehicles.