News · Yahoo Finance

Microsoft’s Claim to Have Bested OpenAI’s Model at One Fourth The Cost Intrigues Me Enough to Buy

Microsoft says its in-house MAI models now match OpenAI's output on common work at a fraction of the cost, with MAI Voice 2 Flash delivering an 89% reduction in GPU costs in Dynamics 365. Fiscal 2026 revenue reached $331.84 billion, up 17.79%, Azure passed $100 billion for the full year, and commercial remaining performance obligations hit $678 billion, up 84%. Fiscal 2026 capex rose 79.62% to $115.95 billion, and excluding OpenAI, commercial RPO grew only 25%, which the article identifies as the key risks. Operating cash flow rose 34.35% to $182.94 billion, while fourth-quarter free cash flow fell 23.19% to $19.64 billion as management expects capex of roughly $175 billion. The article compares Microsoft's 30 times earnings with Alphabet's 15 and Amazon's 36, and argues the gap between what Microsoft charges and what it spends is the metric to watch.

Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.

Read the original on Yahoo Finance ↗

Keywords

MSFTartificial intelligencevaluationearnings

Open a keyword to see other news on the same topic.

Related tickers and likely impact

MSFT

▲ Likely positive

Microsoft

Relevance: medium

MarketUS stocks
SectorInformation Technology
IndustrySystems Software
Market cap$4.0T
Close on 10/19/2026533.52
Change that session+0.84%
MSFT price, forecasts and signals →

Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.

Related news

  • Where Will Microsoft Stock Be in 2030?

    Microsoft closed at a record $543.45 on Oct. 13 and slipped about 2% to $533.69 on Oct. 14, ahead of its fiscal 2027 first-quarter report due Oct. 28. The author estimates the stock could reach about $730 by mid-2030, assuming adjusted EPS grows about 13% a year to roughly $28 and investors pay 26 times earnings, about 37% above the Oct. 14 close. Adjusted EPS rose 22% to $17.28 in fiscal 2026 on revenue of $331.8 billion, but the author expects slower growth as AI data center spending surges: property and equipment spending reached about $116 billion, and depreciation rose 31% to $38.5 billion. Management expects full-year operating margins to fall by less than a point in fiscal 2027, while roughly $22 billion in buybacks barely reduced the share count. At a P/E of around 31, the author argues investors are already paying for much of that growth.

    Yahoo Finance·MSFTvaluationartificial intelligence
  • Microsoft Gets A Price Target Hike From Bernstein Ahead Of Earnings — What Investors Should Know

    Bernstein raised its price target on Microsoft (MSFT) to $662 from $660 and kept an 'Outperform' rating ahead of fiscal Q1 2027 results due after the close on Oct. 28, 2026, with shares down 0.11% premarket and up over 9% year-to-date. The firm said expectations still seem reasonable and it leans positive on the market's reaction. Analysts expect earnings of about $4.72 per share on revenue of roughly $90.4 billion, and per Koyfin data, 53 of 56 analysts rate the stock Buy or Strong Buy. The Telegraph reported that Microsoft has withdrawn from a planned Nscale data center in Loughton, Essex, which was to rent 23,000 Nvidia AI chips and faces grid delays until the 2030s. The deal is believed to be a small part of Nscale's $103 billion in contracted revenue, more than 40% of which comes from Microsoft.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ MSFTMSFTearningsvaluation
  • One Big Question Could Determine Where Microsoft Stock Goes Next

    Microsoft spent more than $115 billion on capital expenditures in fiscal 2026, and the article asks whether that spending will turn into Azure growth fast enough to justify it. Azure grew 43% last quarter, commercial backlog reached $678 billion, and management guided to about 45% Azure growth in constant currency for fiscal Q1. Fiscal Q4 revenue was $90.01 billion and EPS $4.74, including a $3.2 billion gain on the Anthropic investment, but free cash flow fell 23.19% to $19.64 billion and Q1 capex is expected to exceed $50 billion. Shares trade near $537.53, up 11.85% year to date and roughly 2.5% below their 52-week high of $551.15. 24/7 Wall St. sets a price target of $645.75 with a buy rating, while its bull case is $750.55 and bear case $546.13.

    Yahoo Finance·MSFTartificial intelligencevaluation
  • Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Gets Fair Value Bump As AI Revenue Views Lift

    Fresh valuation work lifts Microsoft's fair value from about US$578.82 to about US$599.24, with recent analyst price targets mostly between US$570 and US$725. Bullish firms cite Azure, M365 and Copilot as key AI revenue drivers, while some, such as Rothschild & Co Redburn, take a more measured view on higher multiples and prior rallies. Microsoft unveiled its Azure Maia 300 AI chip, which it says offers about 40% greater AI token processing efficiency per megawatt than leading GPU systems, and reported more than US$130b in new data center leases in the most recent quarter. The US Department of Labor suspended Microsoft from the PERM green card program, and regulators in the UK, Australia and Italy are increasing scrutiny of Microsoft 365 and Copilot.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ MSFTMSFTartificial intelligencevaluation
  • High Switching Costs Protect Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) in the AI Era

    Emerald Wealth Partners, a Zurich-based asset manager, released its Q3 2026 investor letter for its Focused Equity Strategy, which returned 8.9% gross and 8.7% net in the quarter. The letter cites volatility from AI infrastructure build-out, rising interest rates and inflation, and a shift in monetary policy under new Federal Reserve leadership, while the strategy targets low-debt, high-free-cash-flow businesses with pricing power and high switching costs. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) was among the top contributors, adding 1.9 percentage points as its shares rose 37.8% during the quarter. The letter argues that Microsoft's systems hold data, permissions and processes deep inside customers' businesses, making large-scale replacement by AI costly and risky. On October 15, 2026, MSFT closed at $539.44 per share, a $4.01 trillion market capitalization, with a one-month return of 9.25% and a 52-week gain of 5.04%.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ MSFTMSFTartificial intelligenceinvestment trusts
  • What Wall Street Expects from The Q3 Cloud and Infrastructure Scorecard: Microsoft Vs. Amazon

    Azure grew 43% and AWS 37% last quarter, and investors want proof that heavy AI spending is turning into revenue. Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats, while Amazon's AI and chips businesses each passed $25 billion in annualized run rates. Microsoft's commercial remaining performance obligations rose 84% (25% without OpenAI), while its free cash flow fell 23.2% to $19.64 billion. Amazon's trailing 12-month free cash flow was negative $7.6 billion after $54.21 billion of capital spending in one quarter, and its $5.75 EPS included a $53.4 billion one-time gain tied mainly to its Anthropic stake. Microsoft's operating margin is 46.8% versus Amazon's 11.2%, and Amazon is expected to report on October 29.

    Yahoo Finance·• AMZN• MSFTMSFTAMZNcloud computing

Related markets

US stocks →

Latest news

  • Vietnam's finance ministry consults China and US ahead of APEC 2027

    On October 20, on the sidelines of the 2026 APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting in Hong Kong, Finance Minister Ngô Văn Tuấn held bilateral talks with Chinese Finance Minister Lan Fo'an and US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs Erin Browne. Vietnam expects to propose four priority topic groups for APEC 2027 based on the Incheon Action Plan, and China expressed support for these priorities. With the US, Vietnam asked for technical-level talks on a revised protocol to the bilateral tax treaty, support for its position in the Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade (ART) Agreement negotiations, and early recognition of market economy status. The US side pledged to work closely to turn these priorities into a detailed action plan.

    CafeF·VietnamUStariffs
  • What Is Strategy (MSTR)? The Bitcoin Treasury Company

    Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, became a Bitcoin treasury company after co-founder Michael Saylor made BTC its primary reserve asset in 2020. Between May and August 2026 it sold 6,948 BTC for about $432.5 million, moving away from its “never sell Bitcoin” stance toward a goal of never being a net seller, and it resumed buying at the end of August. Its purchases were funded largely by convertible notes and later by preferred stock, and STRC's fall below its $100 par value in June 2026 cut off a key funding route. As Bitcoin fell in 2026, mNAV, the premium over net asset value, dropped to where the market valued the company below its Bitcoin holdings, and the company reported a $12.4 billion loss for Q4 2025. In July 2026 it introduced “net Bitcoin per share,” which subtracts preferred stock and out-of-the-money convertible debt before dividing Bitcoin holdings by shares.

    Decrypt·• BTC/USDTMSTRbitcoincrypto
  • AGI Is Almost Ready. Is Your Portfolio?

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in September that “AGI has arrived,” citing OpenAI's new GPT-6 and the Nvidia chips behind it, though the article notes he sells chips to major AI labs and has a stake in the question. AGI is described as AI that can do most jobs as well as a skilled worker, but today's top models succeed only about half the time on tasks that take a person two workdays, according to research group METR. Tech leaders disagree on timing: Musk has pushed his forecast from 2025 to 2026, Altman says OpenAI is “not quite yet” there, and Pichai expects AGI shortly after 2030. Amazon's AGI chief says models need to be about 100 times more efficient, and AWS customers have signed $496 billion in contracts for future services.

    Yahoo Finance·artificial intelligenceNvidiaAmazon
  • Kevin Warsh's Fed May Not Cut Rates Soon. That's Why This Dividend Stock Belongs in Your Portfolio.

    The next FOMC meeting is on Oct. 28; according to CME Group's FedWatch tool, the Fed probably won't hike that day, but as of Oct. 17 the odds of a hike at the December meeting were 89%. The article argues that a prolonged rate-hike cycle may not occur, while longer-term bond yields have risen in recent months. It presents AbbVie (ABBV) as a dividend stock to consider, citing 18.8% annualized returns over 10 years, a history of raising its dividend for more than 50 years, $6.92 in dividends paid in 2026 ($1.73 per quarter), and a 2.42% forward yield. It also says AbbVie's $70.8 billion of debt is only 14% of its $504 billion market cap and mostly fixed-rate, and that pharmaceuticals are less sensitive to rates and unconnected to the AI trade.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ DXY▼ EUR/USD▼ XAU/USD▲ USD/JPYKevin WarshFedinterest rates
  • 3M Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

    3M reported third-quarter 2026 organic sales growth of 3.3%, an adjusted operating margin of 26.2%, adjusted EPS of $2.50 (up 12% year over year) and free cash flow of $1.2 billion. Orders grew at a high-single-digit rate and backlog rose by a high-teens percentage, led by industrials, safety and data centers. The company raised its full-year adjusted EPS forecast to $9.10–$9.15, and expects about $4.8 billion in free cash flow and organic growth of more than 3.5%. It also issued Amazon a warrant for up to 3.2 million shares tied to data-center sales milestones of $6 billion over seven years, and expects data-center revenue of about $700 million in 2026. China sales fell by a high-single-digit percentage, mainly on weak consumer electronics demand, while U.S. and Canada sales grew about 7%.

    Yahoo Finance·3Mearningsdata centers
  • $350 Billion in Funding Will Be Blocked Unless Trump Ramps Up Pressure on Russia

    According to The Hill, the White House is seeking approval for at least $350 billion in new military spending after the November election, before the current Congress term ends. Pro-Ukraine Republicans object to a deal on importing Russian diesel and to restrictions on the Starshield satellite system for the Ukrainian military, and they want sanctions pressure on Russia restored and those limits lifted. The budget package proposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth includes $17 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system and $47 billion to expand munitions production. Passing it requires nearly all House Republicans' support, and with polls suggesting Democrats could win both chambers after the election, Trump may soon have to make concessions.

    CafeF·▲ XAU/USDDonald Trumpbudgetdefense

All news →

Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo

Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.