Microsoft’s AI bets wipe out $357B in a day despite solid earnings

Microsoft posted strong Q2 results (revenue up 17%, cloud revenue above $50B, Copilot with 15M paid users) but a surge in capital spending and a large portion of OpenAI‑related RPO raised concerns about near-term profitability, triggering a stock drop of up to 12% and erasing about $357B in market value—the largest single-day dollar loss in its history. Analysts are divided on whether AI investments will pay off quickly or require more time and cost discipline, even as enterprise AI demand appears to be expanding.