Microsoft closes at record $543.45, market cap up $1.4T from June low
Microsoft shares rose 0.4% on Tuesday to close at a record $543.45, the first record close in about a year, topping the prior high set in October 2025, according to Bloomberg as reported by IT之家. The stock has gained more than 54% from its June low, adding roughly $1.4 trillion in market value, after a 17% drop in June — its worst month since 2000, when nearly $600 billion in market value was erased amid investor doubts about returns on AI infrastructure spending. The July 29 earnings report proved the turning point: cloud revenue growth hit a four-year high, sending shares up 16% the next day and producing the company's best quarter since 1998, with at least two firms upgrading the stock to buy. Of 72 analysts tracked by Bloomberg, 68 recommend buying and none recommend selling, with an average target price of $584, about 8% above Tuesday's close; TechNews also said the market cap returned above $4 trillion, with a foreign analyst target of $600. Microsoft is up about 12% year to date, trailing the Nasdaq 100's 21% and the S&P 500's 14%, and roughly matching Alphabet and Amazon among the Magnificent Seven while behind Meta, Apple and Nvidia.
Microsoft's stock trajectory is being treated as a market gauge of whether massive AI capital spending is translating into returns.