(CTN News) – On Thursday, Microsoft and Nvidia surpassed $4 trillion in market value, making them the first publicly traded corporations to do it.

The leaders and poster children of the AI era define it. Infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and the most open Azure disclosures to date made the shift possible.

Shares increased by almost 8% after the company’s impressive quarter, which saw revenue rise by 18% to $76.7 billion and net income grow by 24% to $27.2 billion.

The first time investors were given a concrete number was when Microsoft’s Azure, the company’s cloud crown asset, grew 34% year over year. Currently, Azure makes $75 billion a year. No approximations are made. No opacity. The only variable is scale.

In after-hours trading, it was sufficient to push Microsoft over the $4 trillion threshold, where it stayed until the market opened, solidifying the company’s position as the leader and cornerstone of enterprise AI.

The CPUs have been built by Nvidia, and the moat is now being built by Microsoft. With generative tools now integrated into the Microsoft Office suite, Teams, GitHub, and Azure cloud services, its AI initiative is no longer just theoretical.

Word and Excel both use the word “Copilot.” Contracts that give artificial intelligence priority are being used by businesses more and more.

How much does artificial intelligence cost?

Enormous. Microsoft intends to make $30 billion in capital expenditures in the next quarter, or $120 billion yearly, to grow its AI infrastructure.

To accommodate its expanding clientele, this investment will fund more data centers, GPUs, and power-hungry cloud capacity. Generally speaking, such an expense may worry investors. When the expense is used to directly assist enterprise AI implementation and finance 39% Azure growth, however, the scenario is completely unique.

Despite not being the most glamorous tech business (see Nvidia), Microsoft’s stock has risen by over 30% this year. Microsoft’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, said she is pleased that the expenses are directly related to the contractual, paper-based activity that needs to be completed.

Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives claimed in a June client note that “the race to $4 trillion has begun” and called both companies the faces of the AI revolution.

Microsoft and Nvidia crossed $4 trillion this summer, as predicted.

Ives claimed that AI, which is still in its early stages, is the main driver of the technological bull market.

“In our 25 years of covering technology stocks on Wall Street, both are essential components of the most significant technological trend we have ever observed.” Microsoft’s success is fueled by a platform shift that affects almost every level of the contemporary enterprise stack rather than a single product.

Additionally, since late 2023, the company has been increasing its workforce on a quarterly basis, according to Amy Hood, its chief financial officer. Microsoft is now bigger, bolder, and more willing to lead the market.

What they see draws the attention of the marketplace. The Nasdaq Composite has increased, and Big Tech has been experiencing a sustained spike as a result of Microsoft’s results and Meta’s exceeding of Q2 projections.

At the post-release results call, CEO Satya Nadella stated, “We are developing the most comprehensive suite of AI products and tech stack at a massive scale.” “We are currently undergoing a generational technological shift, and I have never had more confidence in Microsoft’s capacity to drive long-term growth and influence the future.”

There are still risks, of course. Microsoft is being actively watched by antitrust authorities, especially in light of the company’s incorporation of OpenAI and AI capabilities into its commercial software. Google and Amazon are still a serious danger.

However, the main takeaway from this quarter was clear:

AI is more than just a story, and Microsoft is not just maintaining the status quo. “At best, perhaps in the middle innings” is how Nadella described the organization, saying it is “not even close to the finish line.”

With Nvidia dominating at $4.4 trillion and Apple staying at $3.1 trillion, Microsoft is now part of the exclusive valuation tier. Microsoft’s success now rests more on momentum than on emphasizing its accomplishments.

The company has made a smooth shift to the AI foundation of the business world. It may not be a question of whether or not a $5 trillion market cap will be reached, but simply when, if the current trajectory continues.

SOURCE: QZ