Microsoft Stock Rises 8% on Strong Forecast and Unchanged AI Spending

Microsoft's shares surged 8% in premarket trading on Thursday after the technology giant exceeded analyst expectations for both revenue and profit, while publishing a strong forecast for the current quarter.

The company's main growth driver remained Azure's cloud platform and artificial intelligence services, which delivered better-than-expected results.

According to Barclays analysts, Microsoft's earnings report provides sufficient grounds for investors to reassess their positive outlook on the company's shares. In their view, improved growth in Azure and Office businesses, as well as sustained capital expenditures (CapEx), represent important positive signals for the market.

Investors' particular attention focused on investments in AI infrastructure. Recently, market concerns have grown over the fact that technology companies are spending billions of dollars on data centers, yet the financial results of these investments are not yet fully evident.

Microsoft confirmed that its investment plan for the 2026 calendar year remains essentially unchanged. Although the official forecast was reduced from $190 billion to $175 billion, the company explained that this change relates only to a reassessment of the useful life of assets and does not reflect the actual investment plan.

Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella stated that in the last quarter alone, Microsoft added 31 new data centers across five continents, bringing their total number to 88 this year.

The company also announced that it expects first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue in the range of $89.85–$90.95 billion, further reinforcing the market's optimistic expectations.