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Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Price Target Raised to $525 by UBS Amid Azure Growth Expectations

We recently published a list of 10 AI News That Broke the Internet. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other AI news that broke the Internet. Key AI Trends Shaping Business in 2025 As AI continues to evolve, its influence on business will be […] Read More...

We recently published a list of 10 AI News That Broke the Internet. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other AI news that broke the Internet.

As AI continues to evolve, its influence on business will be undeniable, reshaping industries with smarter, more efficient solutions. Companies that embrace these trends will be better equipped to innovate, compete, and thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world. According to Oliver Parker Vice President, Global Generative AI Go-To-Market, Google Cloud, artificial intelligence is set to significantly impact businesses in 2025, driving innovation and transforming operations.

Key trends include multimodal AI, which combines text, audio, and visual data for more accurate and contextual analysis; AI agents that simplify complex workflows and support employees; improved enterprise search capabilities allowing users to access data through various media; improved customer experiences with personalized and predictive AI solutions; and stronger security systems powered by AI to detect threats and strengthen defenses. However, this progress also introduces challenges, especially in the realm of AI-driven security threats.

READ ALSO: 10 Companies Hoarding Bitcoin Like There’s No Tomorrow and 9 Trending AI Stocks on Latest News and Ratings.

The AI landscape is undergoing a significant shift, with a growing focus on algorithmic innovations and software applications rather than just scaling hardware. As generative AI models mature, startups and smaller companies are emerging as key players, driving efficiency and new use cases in the field.

In the discussion on CNBC, Chetan Puttagunta from Benchmark and Deirdre Bosa of CNBC focused on the evolving AI landscape. Chetan highlighted that AI innovation is shifting from large-scale hardware investments to algorithmic advancements, especially at the model layer, with entrepreneurs pushing the frontier in inference and AI applications. He mentioned that recent investment trends are moving toward smaller startups focused on algorithmic breakthroughs, as opposed to just scaling hardware.

Deirdre added that AI’s generative phase is transitioning from pre-training large models to leveraging existing models for real-world applications. This phase is characterized by a focus on software, with smaller companies gaining traction, especially with the rise of open-source models like Llama, allowing new startups to challenge established players. Chetan gives examples like Sierra, which is revolutionizing customer service by automating tasks and improving customer experiences. Both see a significant opportunity for new AI-first startups to disrupt traditional software companies.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Price Target Raised to $525 by UBS Amid Azure Growth Expectations
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Price Target Raised to $525 by UBS Amid Azure Growth Expectations

A development team working together to create the next version of Windows.

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 279

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) integrates AI into its software, cloud services, and productivity tools, enhancing business applications, cloud computing, and automation. Its AI solutions support a wide range of industries, from enterprise services to personal computing and gaming.

UBS increased Microsoft’s (MSFT) price target to $525 from $500, maintaining a Buy rating. The firm expects Azure growth to be more back-end loaded as new capacity comes online in the second half. Despite concerns over the CEO’s “AI winter” comment, UBS views Microsoft as a top-tier provider with no signs of over-build among smaller GPU cloud players. Analyst Karl Kierstead noted:

“While the CEO’s ‘AI winter’ comment is unsettling, we’re comfortable that Microsoft is at the highest quality end of the customer/workload spectrum, and we’re not seeing any clear evidence of over-build among the smaller GPU cloud providers.”

While sentiment around Microsoft is improving, it remains mixed due to uncertainties about Azure’s capacity timelines, elevated capital expenditures, and the future of its relationship with OpenAI.

Overall, MSFT ranks 1st on our list of AI news that broke the Internet. While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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