On January 24, Tech giant Microsoft achieved an interesting feat as its worldwide valuation surpassed $3 trillion, becoming the second organization in history to reach that milestone.
Its success is mainly attributable to the market growth following OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch last year and the proliferation of general artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
At the date of this article’s publication, the Redmond corporation is the second-most valuable organization globally. It is only one step behind Apple, which had the highest valuation of $3.03 trillion when Microsoft became a member of the triple-trillion society.
Consistently outperforming consumer and enterprise markets, generative AI products and services achieved a nearly unprecedented performance.
Microsoft’s $13 billion in investments in OpenAI is the primary catalyst for the organization’s upward trajectory. According to Forbes, in addition to having generated record revenue in the previous two quarters, analysts anticipate the company to report sales that surpass all previous records in the upcoming quarter. The estimated value of these sales is approximately $61 billion.
While the collaborative efforts of Microsoft and OpenAI bear fruit, regulatory bodies in Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom are examining whether the partnership between the companies should be subject to de facto merger regulations.
Fortunately, the Redmond corporation possesses considerable recent experience in resolving contentious merger disputes, as its intense pursuit of acquiring Activision-Blizzard-King, which spanned almost two years, concluded in October 2023.
Putting aside impending regulation, many of the most actively traded technology equities in 2023 and 2024 were AI stocks. Meta and Apple also achieved all-time highs during the period, and Nvidia entered the trillion-dollar club with record-breaking performance throughout the year.
Meta recently momentarily surpassed a valuation of one trillion dollars, marking the first time since 2021 that this has occurred.
Industry professionals continue to anticipate Apple’s forthcoming actions. There currently needs to be an official confirmation that the Cupertino-based company intends to release significant AI updates to Siri, iOS, and the iPhone soon, despite ongoing rumors.
