We recently published a list of Mag7 and Beyond: Top 10 AI News Updates and Ratings. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other top AI news updates and ratings.
According to a study presented at a European Central Bank conference, companies that manage to survive the upheaval caused by the adoption of artificial intelligence will eventually leverage AI to help them thrive in the longer run. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and surveys covering the period between 2017 and 2021, authors of the study found that companies that had adopted AI early on in the manufacturing sector saw their productivity drop after they replaced human workers with robots.
These findings are undoubtedly against the notion that technology, particularly AI, makes work more productive. However, Kristina McElheran, one of the authors of the paper, highlighted how there is a lot of pain in the short run. This pain, particularly the drop in productivity, has been due to the interference of AI with manufacturers’ established practices, such as keeping low inventories. Over time, these firms begin to outperform in all areas, including sales, productivity, and employment, as noted in the study.
READ ALSO: 10 AI Stocks Dominating the News This Week and 9 Trending AI Stocks Making Headlines Today.
While traditional companies are rushing to adopt AI in their operations, artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI are in turn racing to advance AI research and enhance their tools. Last Monday, the company said it would it would raise $40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank Group at a $300 billion valuation. While the firm has agreed to fund OpenAI with $10 billion in mid-April and an additional $30 billion in December, it has done so on the condition that OpenAI will transition to for-profit by the end of the year.
In the case that OpenAI’s restructuring fails, the tech investment group’s investment will drop to $20 billion. With the firm having closed a $6.6 billion funding round in October, the new funding will nearly double the valuation of the AI startup.
“OpenAI has very ambitious plans on many fronts and needs a lot of capital to achieve these goals. The list of investors wanting to support that scope has shrunk and may be largely limited to Soft Bank, which itself may not have the necessary capital.”
– D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Gil Luria.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Roman Pyshchyk/Shutterstock.c.om
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 317
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) provides AI-powered cloud, productivity, and business solutions, focusing on efficiency, security, and AI advancements. On March 31, Brent Thill from Jefferies maintained a “Buy” rating on the stock and lowered the price target from $550 to $500.00. The firm lowered price targets across its US software coverage due to recent multiple compression and signs of softening macro factors. The analyst told investors in a research note that it believes “we may have another ‘mullet’ year in software” with a first half chop followed by a second half flow.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of Jefferies’ favorite large caps. The firm views multiple drivers for the stock to reboot. These include the likelihood of growth in Azure and M365 Commercial Cloud to stabilize/ inflect as AI revenue becomes more significant. Microsoft is gaining ground in Azure against competitors, and Microsoft 365 is also gaining steady adoption, which is likely to become “more material” in Fiscal 2026. Thill is also optimistic that with growing AI revenues and moderating capital expenditure growth, its cash flow estimates are bound to improve.
Overall, MSFT ranks 2nd on our list of top AI news updates and ratings. While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
