Microsoft (MSFT) inventory has misplaced about 20% yr so far, on the time of writing, Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 24, in keeping with Yahoo Finance. In the meantime, the SPDR S&P 500 index (SPY) is up about 0.7% in the identical interval.
The inventory crashed following its Q2 fiscal yr 2026 earnings report on January 28. It closed at $481.63, and the next day it closed at $433.55, shedding about 10% in a single day.
The corporate’s enormous capital expenditures and reliance on OpenAI contributed to the crash.
“Approximately 45% of our commercial [remaining performance obligations] balance is from OpenAI,” CFO Amy Hood mentioned in the course of the earnings name.
Meaning 45% of the $625 billion backlog, in keeping with Kind 10-Q, relies on OpenAI. Many buyers consider that it’s a large danger. I did an in-depth evaluation of why investing in OpenAI may be a mistake in my article “AMZN, MSFT, NVDA, SFTBY setting $100 billion on fire.”
Simply earlier than the earnings, Microsoft introduced Maia 200, its up to date customized AI inference accelerator, on January 26.
Scott Guthrie, EVP of the Microsoft Cloud + AI group, praised the chip in a promotional video. “Maia is 30% cheaper than any other AI silicon on the market today,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, evidently earnings stole the chip’s thunder, as Goldman Sachs analysts lastly have one thing to say about it.
Goldman Sachs says Maia 200 improved Microsoft’s AI compute price-to-performance ratio.
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Goldman Sachs says Microsoft achieved progress on its inner silicon technique
Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges and her group launched a brand new analysis be aware after analyzing the impression of Maia 200 on Microsoft inventory.
The group mentioned this was a major constructive for Microsoft’s price-to-performance ratio for AI compute providers and its long-term technique to attain AI compute gross margins in Azure similar to these of CPU-based Azure workloads.
Analysts famous the next limitations:
- Efficiency statistics from Maia, being utilized in quantity for full manufacturing runs, have but to be seen.
- Deepening the related software program ecosystem can be key.
- Competitors is evolving.
The group mentioned they consider diversifying Microsoft’s silicon footprint can be key to reaching higher gross margins and returns on funding in AI compute. They added that Microsoft believes gross margins in AI compute will method these of CPU-based compute over time.
Borges mentioned she believes Nvidia (NVDA) will preserve management within the accelerator market within the close to time period, due to its time-to-market benefit, “CUDA moat,” and speedy tempo of innovation.
Long term, she sees a rising presence of customized applications-specific built-in circuits (ASICs) for inner workloads.
Associated: Historical past of Microsoft: Timeline and Info
She notes that as uncooked compute efficiency approaches bodily limits, additional efficiency and value enhancements can be pushed by innovation throughout networking, reminiscence, and packaging. Borges believes Nvidia and Broadcom (AVGO) are finest positioned to leverage developments in these areas.
In a analysis be aware shared with me, Borges reiterated a purchase score for MSFT inventory and a value goal of $600.
Goldman Sachs analysts famous draw back dangers elements:
- Much less-than-expected income contribution from the OpenAI partnership
- Longer ramp for inner silicon
- Larger investments in tasks outdoors of expectations
- Key management adjustments
- Extra significant shift to customized software program that might negatively impression its
functions enterprise
Microsoft makes a reminiscence storage breakthrough
Microsoft not too long ago shared important progress on Undertaking Silica. That is the corporate’s effort to encode knowledge in glass utilizing femtosecond lasers, a know-how that might protect data for 10,000 years. The corporate notes that cup is a everlasting knowledge storage materials proof against water, warmth, and mud.
Microsoft launched a paper in Nature describing a breakthrough that extends the know-how past costly fused silica to extraordinary borosilicate glass.
This achievement addresses key issues in commercialization — the price and availability of storage media — through the use of a broadly accessible, lower-cost medium, the identical materials present in kitchen cookware and oven doorways.
The corporate has developed a technique for parallel high-speed writing and a method to allow accelerated growing older exams on the written glass, indicating that the info ought to stay intact for no less than 10,000 years.
In comparison with the corporate’s earlier efforts, the brand new approach shops a whole lot of layers of knowledge in glass solely 2mm thick. Each the reader for the glass and the writing gadgets require fewer components, making them simpler to fabricate.
Associated: Morgan Stanley resets Nvidia inventory forecast forward of earnings
