Microsoft’s market capitalization has dropped below $3 trillion, a symbolic threshold the company first breached just over two years ago when AI euphoria was peaking across Wall Street.
What happened to the AI premium
Microsoft first crossed the $3 trillion market cap line on January 24, 2024. At the time, it became only the second company in history to reach that valuation, trailing Apple. The catalyst was straightforward: investors were pouring money into anything connected to artificial intelligence, and Microsoft’s deep partnership with OpenAI made it the blue-chip proxy for the AI trade.
Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s stock had already climbed more than 1,000% since he took the helm, a run that transformed the company from a legacy software vendor into a cloud and AI powerhouse.
But January 2026 hit different. The stock suffered an 11% monthly decline, its worst performance in over a decade.
