Microsoft poised for US$4 trillion valuation after solid results
The software company forecast a record US$30 billion in capital spending for the current fiscal first quarter and reported booming sales in its Azure cloud computing business on Wednesday.
Shares of Microsoft were up 8.5 per cent at US$557.03 in early premarket trading, valuing it at US$4.14 trillion.
Redmond, Washington-headquartered Microsoft first cracked the US$1 trillion mark in April 2019.
Its move to US$3 trillion was more measured than other tech giants, Nvidia and Apple, with AI bellwether Nvidia tripling its value in just about a year and clinching the US$4 trillion milestone before any other company on Jul 9. Apple was last valued at US$3.12 trillion.
Lately, breakthroughs in trade talks between the US and its trading partners ahead of President Donald Trump's August one tariff deadline have buoyed stocks, propelling the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record highs.
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Microsoft, the second largest US company, has rebounded nearly 50 per cent from its April 2025 lows, when global markets were rattled by Trump's tariff offensive.
Microsoft's multibillion-US dollar bet on OpenAI is proving to be a game-changer, powering its Office Suite and Azure offerings with cutting-edge AI and fuelling the stock to more than double its value since ChatGPT's late-2022 debut.
Armed with exclusive access to OpenAI's models, Microsoft has raced to the front of the generative AI pack – supercharging its Azure cloud business, now the company's top revenue driver, and solidifying its dominance in the tech landscape, compared to Google's cloud and Amazon's Web services.
Wall Street's surging confidence in the company comes on the heels of back-to-back record revenues for the tech giant since September 2022.
The stock's rally had also received an extra boost as the tech giant trimmed its workforce and doubled down on AI investments – determined to cement its lead as businesses everywhere race to harness the technology.
While sweeping US tariffs had investors bracing for tighter business spending, Microsoft's strong earnings have shown that the company's books are yet to take a hit from the levies. REUTERS
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Straits Times
36 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Trump fires US labor official over data and gets earlier than expected chance to reshape Fed
Signage is seen at the United States Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 29, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - President Donald Trump on Friday fired a top Labor Department official on the heels of a market-shocking weak scorecard of the U.S. job market, accusing her without evidence of manipulating the figures and adding to already growing concerns about the quality of economic data published by the federal government. In a second surprise economic policy development, the door for Trump to make an imprint on a Federal Reserve with which he clashes almost daily for not lowering interest rates opened much earlier than anticipated when Fed Governor Adriana Kugler unexpectedly announced her resignation on Friday afternoon. The two developments further rattled a stock market already reeling from his latest barrage of tariff announcements and the weak jobs data. The benchmark S&P 500 Index sank 1.6% in its largest daily drop in more than two months. Trump accused Erika McEntarfer, appointed by former President Joe Biden, of faking the jobs numbers. There is no evidence to back Trump's claims of data manipulation by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the statistical agency that compiles the closely watched employment report as well as consumer and producer price data. A representative for the BLS did not respond to a request for comment. Friday began with BLS reporting the U.S. economy created only 73,000 jobs in July, but more stunning were net downward revisions showing 258,000 fewer jobs had been created in May and June than previously reported. "We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Opening of Woodlands Health has eased load on KTPH, sets standard for future hospitals: Ong Ye Kung Singapore New vehicular bridge connecting Punggol Central and Seletar Link to open on Aug 3 Singapore New S'pore jobs portal launched for North West District residents looking for work near home Business Property 'decoupling' illegal if done solely to avoid taxes: High Court Singapore HSA investigating teen who was observed to be allegedly vaping in MRT train Asia KTM plans new passenger rail service in Johor Bahru to manage higher footfall expected from RTS Singapore Tengah facility with over 40 animal shelters, businesses hit by ticks Singapore 60 years of building Singapore DATA CONCERNS A Trump administration official who requested anonymity said that while all economic data is noisy, the White House has been dissatisfied with how large the revisions have been in the recent data and issues with lower survey responses. The problem started during COVID and has not been addressed in the years since. "There are these underlying problems that have been festering here for years now that have not been rectified," the person said. "The markets and companies and the government need accurate data, and like, we just weren't getting that," the official said. The BLS has already reduced the sample collection for consumer price data as well as the producer price report, citing resource constraints. The government surveys about 121,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 631,000 individual worksites for the employment report. The response rate has declined from 80.3% in October 2020 to about 67.1% in July, BLS data shows. A Reuters poll last month found 89 of 100 top policy experts had at least some worries about the quality of U.S. economic data, with most also concerned that authorities are not addressing the issue urgently enough. In addition to the concerns over job market data, headcount reductions at BLS have resulted in it scaling back the scope of data collection for the Consumer Price Index, one of the most important gauges of U.S. inflation, watched by investors and policymakers worldwide. Trump's move fed into concerns that politics may influence data collection and publication. "Politicizing economic statistics is a self-defeating act," said Michael Madowitz, principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute's Roosevelt Forward. "Credibility is far easier to lose than rebuild, and the credibility of America's economic data is the foundation on which we've built the strongest economy in the world. Blinding the public about the state of the economy has a long track record, and it never ends well." FED CHANGE SOONER THAN EXPECTED Meanwhile, Kugler's surprise decision to leave the Fed at the end of next week presents Trump an earlier-than-expected opportunity to install a potential successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell on the central bank's Board of Governors. Trump has threatened to fire Powell repeatedly because the Fed chief has overseen a policymaking body that has not cut interest rates as Trump has demanded. Powell's term expires next May, although he could remain on the Fed board until January 31, 2028, if he chooses. Trump will now get to select a Fed governor to replace Kugler and finish out her term, which expires on January 31, 2026. A governor filling an unexpired term may then be reappointed to a full 14-year term. Some speculation has centered on the idea Trump might pick a potential future chair to fill that slot as a holding place. Leading candidates for the next Fed chair include Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and Fed Governor Chris Waller, a Trump appointee who this week dissented with the central bank's decision to keep rates on hold, saying he preferred to start lowering them now. Trump, as he was leaving the White House to spend the weekend at his Bedminster, New Jersey, estate, said he was happy to have the open slot to fill. "I would not read any political motivation into what [Kugler is] doing, although the consequence of what she's doing is she's calling Trump's bluff," said Derek Tang, an analyst at LH Meyer, a research firm. "She's putting the ball in his court and saying, look, you're putting so much pressure on the Fed, and you want some control over nominees, well, here's a slot." REUTERS


CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Trump fires BLS commissioner, raising concerns about economic data quality
WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump fired the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday (Aug 1) after data showed weaker-than-expected employment growth in July and massive downward revisions to the prior two months' job counts. Trump accused McEntarfer, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden, of faking the jobs numbers. There is no evidence to back Trump's claims of data manipulation by the BLS, the statistical agency that compiles the closely watched employment report, as well as consumer and producer price data. The US economy created only 73,000 jobs in July. Data for May and June were revised sharply down to show 258,000 fewer jobs created than had been previously reported. "We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The BLS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. William Wiatrowski, the deputy commissioner, will serve as acting commissioner. The Trump administration's recent mass layoffs of federal government workers have raised concerns about the quality of US economic data, long seen as the gold standard. Economists, labour unions and Democratic Party leaders criticised the firing as an attempt by the Trump administration to manipulate data and warned of lasting damage to the economy. "The civil servants at BLS are not political actors. They are professionals committed to producing accurate, independent data, regardless of who is in power," said American Federation of Government Employees national president Everett Kelley. McEntarfer had worked in the federal government for more than two decades under multiple administrations, Kelley said. Trump-aligned Republicans were supportive of the BLS firing, calling McEntarfer a "Biden holdover". DATA CREDIBILITY NOW IN QUESTION "Politicising economic statistics is a self-defeating act," said Michael Madowitz, principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute's Roosevelt Forward. "Credibility is far easier to lose than rebuild, and the credibility of America's economic data is the foundation on which we've built the strongest economy in the world. Blinding the public about the state of the economy has a long track record, and it never ends well." Earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disbanded two expert committees that worked with the government to produce economic statistics. Lutnick has also floated the idea of stripping out government spending from the gross domestic product report, claiming "governments historically have messed with GDP". The BLS has already reduced the sample collection for consumer price data as well as the producer price report, citing resource constraints. The government surveys about 121,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 631,000 individual worksites for the employment report. The response rate has declined from 80.3 per cent in October 2020 to about 67.1 per cent in July. "In my opinion, today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad," Trump wrote in another Truth Social post, without offering any evidence. Economists attributed the near-stall in job growth to Trump's trade and immigration policies. They said uncertainty about where Trump's tariff level would settle had made it difficult for businesses to plan long-term. More clarity has emerged as the White House has announced trade deals, but economists said the effective tariff rate was still the highest since the 1930s. Trump slapped dozens of trading partners with steep tariffs on Thursday, including a 35 per cent duty on many goods from Canada.


International Business Times
2 hours ago
- International Business Times
Vietnam Marks Medical Breakthrough With First Robotic Pediatric Brain Procedure
Robotic systems are fast becoming the new standard worldwide. According to Frontiers, the global medical robots market was valued at approximately US$27.7 billion in 2023, and is projected to hit US$127 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 16.5%. Europe and North America remain leaders in adoption. In 2023, Europe alone had over 3,500 surgical robotic systems and performed more than 280,000 robotic surgeries, according to MarketGrowthReports. "Innovation like robot-assisted surgery isn't science fiction, it's the future of the health service," said UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting in The Scottish Sun. That future is no longer limited to the West. It has arrived in Southeast Asia, specifically, Vietnam. At Vinmec Central Park International Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City), surgeons performed the country's first pediatric stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) using the AutoGuide™ robotic guidance system on a 9-year-old boy with drug-resistant epilepsy. The patient, B.Q.K. from Hanoi, had suffered from epilepsy since 2021. Despite undergoing multiple treatments in Vietnam and abroad, his seizures persisted. For five years, his family sought a solution that could restore their son's quality of life and allow for seizure-free sleep. That solution arrived in 2025. On June 17, 2025, a surgical team led by Dr. Truong Van Tri, with support from Japanese epilepsy expert Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shunsuke Nakae, performed a high-precision resection. The young patient after a life-changing breakthrough Handout Using AutoGuide, Vinmec doctors successfully implanted electrodes deep into the orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus—regions densely packed with neural networks and blood vessels. The robot worked in tandem with advanced imaging tools, including a 3.0 Tesla MRI and multi-channel EEG systems, to visualize the brain and track seizure activity. These technologies allowed the clinical team to identify the epileptogenic zone with high confidence, something that conventional surface EEG, PET, or MRI alone often fail to do in pediatric cases. "For the first time, we achieved near-perfect outcome in pediatric epilepsy surgery thanks to AutoGuide™. This is a critical milestone, especially for young patients who are highly vulnerable to major brain surgery," said Dr. Tri. The patient experienced no postoperative neurological deficits. Within a month, he returned to regular play, and his seizure frequency decreased by more than 95%, a life-changing turnaround. New Hope for Drug-Resistant Epilepsy Patients According to the World Health Organization, approximately 30% of epilepsy patients are drug-resistant, meaning they do not respond to medication. Surgery is often the most effective option for these patients, but it relies heavily on accurately localizing the epileptogenic zone. This process becomes even more difficult in children, where traditional tools like scalp EEG, MRI, and PET often yield inconclusive results. Robotic SEEG offers a minimally invasive and highly accurate alternative. Vinmec Central Park advances neurology through technology and international integration By combining robotic precision with multidisciplinary expertise, Vinmec Central Park is now among the few hospitals in Asia capable of performing pediatric SEEG with robotic assistance. Recognized as Vietnam's top private hospital system for expatriates and international patients (based on independent surveys), Vinmec is advancing the frontiers of neurology and precision medicine in Southeast Asia. This achievement reflects Vinmec's long-term strategy to develop centers of excellence through cutting-edge technology, personalized treatment, and global collaboration. As Vietnam continues to invest in AI, robotics, and precision healthcare, such milestones offer new possibilities for patients once deemed untreatable.