The symbol is strong. Ten years after taking the reins of Microsoft, Satya Nadella sees all the fruits of his strategy materialize in one figure: 3 trillion dollars. This is the amount of market capitalization, exceeded for the first time in New York by the American company during Wednesday’s session, or more than 404 dollars per share. Only one company had achieved this feat before her: Apple.
Having become a diversified technology giant, Microsoft is benefiting from its investment in OpenAI. By investing more than $10 billion early on in the parent company of ChatGPT, it secured a technological lead that allowed it to deploy generative AI in all its solutions and products for businesses and individuals. In January, Microsoft launched monthly subscriptions of $20 to $30 for small businesses, freelancers and the general public, opening access to an Office suite powered by generative AI.
But the boom in these technologies, which are very demanding in computing power, has for the moment mainly made it possible to drive the growth of its cloud division, with Azure becoming the most powerful engine of its growth. In the first quarter (between July and September 2023), cloud activity represented 56% of the publisher’s sales. Investors hope to read in the results of the second quarter of its financial year, which it will present on January 30, a new leap forward in the growth of its revenues driven by this new wave.
Last year, Microsoft also obtained the green light for the largest acquisition in its history, in the video game sector with Activision (publisher of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush). A $75 billion buyout from which he also intends to reap many juicy fruits.