By HuffPost
Publication Date: 2026-01-29 21:51:00
Jan 29 (Reuters) – Big Tech earnings so far this week have sent a clear warning: investors are willing to overlook soaring spending on artificial intelligence if it fuels strong growth, but are quick to punish companies that fall short.
The contrast was clear in Thursday’s market reaction to earnings from Microsoft and Meta, highlighting how dramatically the stakes have changed since the launch of ChatGPT started the AI boom more than three years ago.
Microsoft dropped 10%, shedding more than $350 billion in market value after its cloud business failed to impress, while Meta gained 10%. The former’s market valuation of $3.2 trillion still exceeds that of Meta’s $1.86 trillion, but over the last two years, Meta shares have gained 87% while Microsoft has risen just 7%.
After riding its first-mover advantage with OpenAI to become the world’s most valuable firm in 2024, Microsoft is now under growing investor pressure to justify its soaring capital outlay. Microsoft reported…
