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Microsoft on Thursday became the second publicly traded company after Nvidia to hit $4 trillion in stock market value after shares spiked following blowout quarterly results.

The landmark valuation is the latest sign of growing bullishness about an AI investment boom that market watchers believe is still in the early stages – even as companies like Microsoft plan $100 billion or more in annual capital spending to add new capacity.

Microsoft reported profit of $27.2 billion on revenue of $76.4 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter, capping another year of growth amid massive customer interest in the company's cutting-edge AI capacity.

Strong results from Microsoft and Meta Platforms late on Thursday also fueled gains in Amazon and sent chipmaker Nvidia to a record high, with the four heavyweight AI players gaining over half a trillion dollars in market value.

Wall Street's heavyweight players leading in AI – Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta Platforms – now account for a quarter of the S&P 500, according to LSEG data.

Shortly after midday, Microsoft shares were up 4.3%, giving it a market capitalization slightly under $4 trillion after earlier eclipsing the benchmark.

"Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "We're innovating across the tech stack to help customers adapt and grow in this new era."

The results drew plaudits from Wall Street analysts on an earnings conference call at which Nadella boasted that the company had opened new data centers across six continents in the last year and touted major contracts for global companies like Nestle and Barclays.

Microsoft was one of the first tech giants to double down on artificial intelligence when the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 rocked the tech industry. Microsoft has had a strategic partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI since 2019, holding rights to its intellectual property.

At the heart of the results was a stunning 39% surge in Azure, the company's legacy cloud computing platform, which is getting "supercharged" with AI, said Angelo Zino, technology analyst at CFRA Research.

Zino attributed "just about all of" Microsoft's recent surge in valuation to AI.

Redmond, Washington-headquartered company first reached a $1 trillion stock market value in 2019.

Its move to $3 trillion was more measured than Nvidia and Apple's, with AI-bellwether Nvidia tripling its value in just about a year and clinching the $4 trillion milestone on July 9.

Apple was last valued at $3.12 trillion.

While Nvidia is part of a wave of tech companies that have risen to prominence with the AI boom of the last few years, Microsoft has long been among America's corporate elite, joining the prestigious Dow index in 1999, more than a decade after introducing the once-revolutionary Windows program.

The company's revenue base includes such workplace mainstays as the Outlook email platform and the LinkedIn career website. Microsoft also has a significant gaming division with the Xbox console.

All of these businesses are set to benefit from Microsoft's AI advantages.

"We view (Microsoft) as kind of the enterprise king," said Zino. "What AI does is it provides new growth opportunities for this company."

For all of fiscal 2025, Microsoft reported revenues of $281.7 billion, up 15% from the prior year. Microsoft's revenues have more than doubled from 2018, when they were $110.4 billion.

Zino thinks Microsoft is poised for a comparable run over the next six or seven years when it could see annual revenue growth of 10% as greater use of AI creates even more opportunity.

The biggest risk to this outlook – and to the AI boom generally – would be "if we get to the point where supply for AI exceeds demand," Zino said. "That could put pressure on pricing for cloud computing and space."

A long-awaited bridge installation is happening in Mountain View that will connect the Stevens Creek Trail to the Ameswell Hotel for improved pedestrian and bicycle access in the Moffett area.

Currently, a portion of Stevens Creek Trail has been narrowed to allow for the construction of a pedestrian and bicycle bridge directly across from the Ameswell property at 750 Moffett Blvd. Access to the area will be curtailed as a full closure is slated for the trail segment between La Avenida Street and Moffett Boulevard from Monday, July 28 to Friday, Aug. 15, according to a city update.

A detour route has been mapped out by the city for pedestrians and bicyclists to use Shoreline Boulevard and Middlefield Road during the week of construction. Access to the trail will be open at the La Avenida entrance and Moffett Boulevard entrance.

The bridge over Stevens Creek has been a long-time coming. It was one of the conditions for the Ameswell development, which the city approved back in 2016. The hotel, office building and parking garage have been built since then, but the bridge has taken a lot longer – roughly nine years.

Mountain View spokesperson Lenka Wright attributed the delay to complications during the design phase of the project. The developer needed to obtain multiple permits from the city, Santa Clara Valley Water and PG&E, Wright said in an email.

There also was a limited window for when construction could occur at the creek. The Valley Water permit only allows work to be done from May 15 to Oct. 15, Wright said.

The developer has fully funded the cost of the bridge, and the city will own the bridge once construction is complete, Wright said.

The bridge installation is expected to be finished in October, according to the city website.

This story originally appeared in the Mountain View Voice. Emily Margaretten joined the Mountain View Voice in 2023 as a reporter covering City Hall.