Microsoft Stock Reaches New Heights as Azure Surpasses $100 Billion

Microsoft's cloud business, Azure, has seen its fastest growth in years, surpassing $100 billion for the first time. This marks a significant milestone for Microsoft, as it had spent years convincing investors that AI would become a commercial business rather than an expensive experiment.

The growth is not just about size, but also where the growth is coming from. Companies are no longer buying cloud capacity only to store data, but are instead renting computing power to train models, run AI agents, and process workloads that barely existed a few years ago.

Nvidia's warning of ongoing memory shortages and rising component costs has put companies like Microsoft in a different position. Demand is still there, but the cost of serving it is climbing much faster than earlier in the AI cycle.

The next phase of AI expansion looks much more expensive, with Nvidia selling nearly every advanced chip it can produce. Investors are now watching not just revenue growth, but also whether higher chip prices and memory shortages limit returns on investments.

Microsoft's stock has changed its tone, moving from a recovery to a trend-building phase. The correction held above the long-term rising trendline, buyers reclaimed the 126-day moving average around $435, and the move through the $470-$490 area removed the ceiling that had rejected several earlier rallies.

The next test for Microsoft's stock sits near $550, where sellers took control before the previous correction. However, this time the rally is arriving with a stronger structure underneath it, with higher lows building beneath price and momentum looking healthier than during earlier recovery attempts.