Microsoft stock prices surged as much as 17% on Thursday to above $455, the largest single-day gain in nearly 20 years.
The resurgence followed the tech giant’s 2026 fiscal year fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, which appeared to finally convince investors that CEO Satya Nadella and chief financial officer Amy Hood’s strategy for converting an estimated $190 billion AI spending this year into rising revenue growth is bearing fruit.
Microsoft went into earnings this week with its stock down nearly 30% from an October 2025 high of $555, depressed by months of investor funk about ephemeral returns in the AI sector following a massive investment in a buildout now expected to exceed $850 billion across the hyperscalers and cloud providers. The stock closed at $390.54 on Wednesday, and then briefly hit $456 in afternoon trading Thursday, adding about $483 billion in market value during the day.
The stock’s Thursday rally represents the single biggest one-day gain since 2008, when Microsoft’s stock increased 19%, according to Jefferies.
The gloom lifted following Microsoft’s fourth quarter and fiscal year end results that saw nearly every metric exceed analyst expectations, along with forward guidance that was even stronger—delivered by Hood who sounded almost cheerful during the earnings call. Quarterly revenue hit $90 billion, about $2.4 billion over analysts’ $87.6 billion consensus and up $13.6 billion (17.7%) from a year ago. Earnings per share came in at $4.74, above the consensus estimate of $4.24, amid total quarterly net income of $35.8 billion.
