Microsoft Is Down 24% This Year While Spending $30B a Quarter on AI

1 hour ago 1

David Beren

Fri, March 27, 2026 astatine 12:15 PM CDT 4 min read

One of the largest tech names the satellite has ever known, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) sits astatine the halfway of 1 of tech investing's biggest debates: whether its AI infrastructure stake is genius oregon a superior allocation occupation the marketplace is pricing in. Shares are down 24% year-to-date, tracking toward the worst quarterly show since the 2008 fiscal crisis, adjacent aft posting $81.27 cardinal successful Q2 FY2026 revenue, a 17% year-over-year summation that bushed estimates. The trigger: a reported hiring frost crossed Microsoft's unreality portion and North American income groups, surfaced by Reuters connected March 26.

The frost arrives astatine an uncomfortable infinitesimal arsenic superior expenditures deed astir $37.5 cardinal successful Q2 alone, up 66% year-over-year, and are projected to scope $146 cardinal for the afloat fiscal 2026. Azure grew 39% year-over-year past quarter, with guardant guidance of 37% to 38% for adjacent quarter, prompting the broader marketplace to question whether the spending required to prolong that maturation is outpacing returns.

Looking deeper astatine Reddit sentiment, Microsoft is sitting comfortably astatine 46 retired of 100, a firmly neutral number, with an enactment people of 37. However, r/stocks carries a sentiment of 62, portion r/wallstreetbets sits astatine 29, reflecting a sharper bearish lean.

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The hiring frost station connected r/wallstreetbets drew 843 upvotes and 83 comments with a 98% upvote ratio. On r/stocks, a thread titled "Is marketplace overreacting astir Microsoft?" generated 250 comments connected conscionable 299 upvotes, signaling genuine debate. The writer wrote: "Microsoft doesn't attraction astir elemental bob and his location PC moving windows. Majority of microsoft net comes from large corpo and Azure and I didn't spot immoderate indicator of this failing apart."

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