How Has Microsoft’s Story Changed In A Year?

Microsoft’s management stressed Copilot and AI agents on its fiscal Q4 2026 call. The stock has returned 34% in three months, against 2.5% for the S&P 500. Microsoft (MSFT) needs fast Azure growth and revenue from Copilot’s paid seats to justify that gain. A year ago management led with a different topic, tied to a large part of Microsoft. What was it exactly?

Microsoft Led With Customers Moving To The Cloud

Microsoft used to highlight migrations, meaning customers moving their existing systems to the cloud. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud business. On the fiscal Q4 2025 call, held July 30, 2025, management said it saw “accelerating growth from migrations” again that quarter.

Azure was already large when management said that. Azure had passed $75 billion in annual revenue, up 34%, management said on the same call. That was more than a quarter of Microsoft’s $281.7 billion of revenue in fiscal 2025.

Migrations have…