Microsoft became only the second publicly traded company to reach a $4 trillion market capitalisation on 31 July, propelled by continued demand for its artificial-intelligence and cloud-computing services. The milestone was hit less than a month after the software maker reported strong fourth-quarter results, sending the stock to a record high. Revenue from the company’s Intelligent Cloud division, which includes the Azure platform, rose to $29.8 billion in the latest quarter, taking Azure’s trailing-12-month sales to about $75 billion. Microsoft shares have more than doubled—up over 110%—since the November 2022 debut of ChatGPT, whose developer OpenAI relies on Microsoft’s infrastructure. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella plans to spend roughly $80 billion next year to expand the firm’s AI and data-centre capacity. Microsoft joins chipmaker Nvidia, which crossed the $4 trillion threshold on 9 July, underscoring the investor frenzy surrounding companies seen as foundational to the AI boom. The two firms now dominate the upper reaches of global equity markets, together accounting for a rising share of major technology and thematic exchange-traded funds.