Microsoft surged past a $4 trillion market valuation on Wednesday after posting stronger-than-expected earnings, fueled by the rapid growth of its Azure cloud business, which has now crossed $75 billion in annual revenue. The software giant’s stock rose in after-hours trading, marking a significant milestone just weeks after Nvidia briefly became the first to hit the same valuation threshold.
Building on its strong earnings performance, Microsoft’s stock climbed 8% in after-hours trading, boosting its market valuation to approximately $4.1 trillion. The company posted an 18% jump in revenue, its fastest growth in more than three years, largely propelled by a 34% year-over-year surge in Azure and cloud-related sales.
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By Wednesday’s close, Microsoft shares had climbed 22% since the start of the year, well ahead of the S&P 500’s 8% gain. The stock recently hit an all-time high of $513.71 on July 25 and continued its upward momentum in after-hours trading, crossing $553.
Microsoft is experimenting with a new “smart mode” in Copilot across both consumer and Microsoft 365 versions that intelligently selects the most appropriate AI model for a given task, likely incorporating GPT-5. The goal is to simplify decision-making for users while enhancing productivity.
At its Build 2025 conference, Microsoft introduced Windows AI Foundry, a toolkit aimed at helping developers build and run AI applications natively on Windows devices. In parallel, Azure AI Foundry was launched with expanded capabilities, including advanced model evaluation tools, integration with xAI’s Grok 3, and support for orchestrating multi-agent AI systems.
Additionally, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Discovery, a research-oriented platform that leverages agentic AI to accelerate complex scientific processes such as generating hypotheses and designing more energy-efficient data centers.
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Microsoft President Brad Smith recently unveiled a sweeping $4 billion initiative, Microsoft Elevate, aimed at equipping million people worldwide with essential AI skills over the next five years. The program blends the company’s educational outreach with its philanthropic efforts, targeting a global workforce that’s rapidly adapting to the demands of an AI-driven economy.
In parallel, Microsoft is ramping up its infrastructure investment, with over $30 billion allocated for the upcoming quarter. These funds will go toward expanding AI-optimized data centers and cloud capabilities, reinforcing the company’s commitment to staying at the forefront of next-generation computing.
Nvidia and Microsoft, both riding high on the momentum of the AI revolution, have overtaken Apple in market valuation. Now trailing in third place with a market cap of around $3.2 trillion, Apple has seen its stock drop 17% this year amid growing concerns that it’s lagging in the AI race.