Microsoft (MSFT) Stumbles as OpenAI Exit Strategy Sparks Investor Jitters
Redmond's AI gamble hits turbulence—Wall Street watches for cracks in the empire's armor.
Post-OpenAI pivot leaves analysts scrambling
While Satya Nadella plays 4D chess with AI strategy, traders dump shares faster than a Bing search result. The stock dipped 2.3% pre-market—because nothing says 'strategic vision' like panic-selling before breakfast.
Bonus finance jab: Goldman analysts still trying to spin this as 'healthy profit-taking' while their quant models quietly short the position.
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One of the biggest moves, according to AI Chief Executive Mustafa Suleyman, was to set up the MAI Superintelligence Team. Apparently, this team is intended to take some of the weight of public sentiment against AI off of Microsoft, by focusing on putting “…human interests and guardrails first.” But Suleyman also came out against the notion that AI systems have “…humanlike feelings or rights.”
This is actually a good point; I asked ChatGPT once how many people in a typical day thank it after it answers their questions. Its response? “More than you think.” It did not have access to user data or anything like that, but it figured anywhere from a third to half of user interactions in a typical day ended with an expression of gratitude. Thus, even as AI becomes “more humanlike,” Suleyman noted, we “…shouldn’t over-empathize with it.”
PS5 Exclusives on Xbox?
The console wars, meanwhile, only seem to narrow from here. With the very real possibility that the next Xbox will be able to play just about everything thanks to its status as a hybrid PC, Microsoft seems to be leaning into this notion with a recent survey to players that included a reference to Ghost of Yotei.
For those not familiar, Ghost of Yotei is a PlayStation title, an exclusive, though it will likely get a PC port soon enough. And if the next Xbox truly does behave like a gaming PC with very specific attributes, then that WOULD open up the possibility that just about every game is an Xbox game. Though that is not the only possible explanation; others believe that this may be a way to get insight on future games similar to Ghost of Yotei instead.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 19.21% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $636.36 per share implies 27.79% upside potential.
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