Microsoft has emerged as the winner from Big Tech’s first earnings of the new Trump term, with the software giant poised to regain its crown from Apple as the most valuable public company as investors bet it is best placed to navigate the current trade war. Despite widespread pessimism ahead of its results, Microsoft posted record revenue at its Azure cloud computing unit, crediting its partnership with OpenAI and demand for its artificial intelligence-infused software. Those comments provided succour to investors amid fears of a US recession and concerns that vast expenditures on AI are unjustified. This text has been highlighted 8 times by other subscribers! Add to highlights Apple and Amazon were the major losers, with the iPhone maker budgeting at least $900mn in extra quarterly costs from tariffs, while the ecommerce giant cut its outlook and warned of higher prices and plunging consumer spending. Combined, they were set to lose roughly $190bn in market value based on after-hours trading on Thursday. Microsoft’s outperformance enabled it to stick with an ambitious plan to spend $80bn on data centres this fiscal year ending on June 30 and even more in the next, including tens of billions on new projects in Europe to ensure the US cannot cut off the region’s access to data and computing power. “Not only did Microsoft knock the most important number out of the park, but their capex commentary spelled relief” for the tech sector, said Ben Reitzes, head of technology research at Melius. “We expect Microsoft to continue to benefit since confidence in Azure has been restored — and you can’t tariff software.”

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