Microsoft tops $4 trillion in market cap after hours, joining Nvidia in exclusive club
Following a better-than-expected earnings report on Wednesday, Microsoft shares jumped 8%, lifting the software giant's market cap to about $4.1 trillion. Should the rally stick on Thursday, Microsoft would join chipmaker Nvidia, which hit $4 trillion for the first time earlier this month.
Microsoft reported 18% revenue growth, its fastest rate of expansion in over three years, driven by its Azure cloud computing business. Microsoft disclosed Azure revenue in dollars for the first time, and said sales from Azure and other cloud services exceeded $75 billion in fiscal 2025, up 34% from the prior year.
As of the close on Wednesday, Microsoft shares were up 22% for the year, topping the S&P 500's 8% gain. Microsoft hit a record close of $513.71 on July 25. The stock is above $553 in extended trading.
Nvidia and Microsoft, two of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, have zoomed past Apple on the market cap leaderboard. Apple is third at about $3.2 billion, with its stock having fallen 17% this year as investors worry that the iPhone maker is getting left behind in AI. Apple reports quarterly results after the bell on Thursday.
Among tech's megacaps, Nvidia has been the best performer in 2025, up 33%. The chipmaker's graphics processing units (GPUs) are the backbone of the large language models being developed by Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Meta and others, and they're filling up data centers being built by those same companies.
Nvidia is scheduled to report results in late August.
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