Following the announcement of its latest financial results, Microsoft achieved the largest single-day market value increase in US stock market history. The company’s shares closed the day with a rise of over 15% on July 30th, increasing its market value by $450 billion.

With this massive increase, Microsoft surpassed the single-day market value increase record previously held by Nvidia. The company’s shares showed their strongest daily performance since October 2008, and its total market value reached $3.44 trillion.

Azure and Artificial Intelligence are Behind the Record

The main reason for the sharp rise in shares was the 43% increase in revenue from Microsoft’s cloud computing unit, Azure. This rate was recorded as the strongest growth seen for the Azure unit since the beginning of 2022.

Company management also revised its expectations upwards for the new fiscal year. Microsoft announced that it expects Azure to grow by 45 percent on a constant exchange rate basis in the first fiscal quarter.

The financial results are considered a strong indication that Microsoft’s billions of dollars invested in artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure are now beginning to generate tangible revenue. Despite the strong results, the company also clearly stated that it will not slow down its capital expenditures.

Microsoft plans to make capital expenditures of approximately $50 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 and a total of $175 billion throughout the 2026 calendar year. Company officials emphasized that there is no change in these massive investment goals.

Single-day increase surpasses the Turkish stock market

Microsoft’s single-day market capitalization increase of approximately $450 billion is quite remarkable in terms of its scale. According to Bloomberg data, this figure is greater than the total market capitalization of approximately 96% of the companies in the S&P 500 index.

This increase in value also surpassed the total stock market capitalization of many countries. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the total market capitalization of the stock exchanges of South Africa, Turkey, Finland, and Vietnam is less than the value Microsoft gained in a single day.

The total market capitalization of BIST (Istanbul Stock Exchange) is currently around 12 trillion 864 billion TL, or approximately 270 billion dollars. The fact that a single company gained this much value in just 24 hours ago again highlights the weight of technology giants in the global economy.

How do you evaluate Microsoft’s growth rate and its investments in artificial intelligence?