Microsoft shares traded higher on October 12, 2026, closing near $541 amid renewed momentum from the company’s push to deploy its third-generation Maia AI accelerators at scale starting in 2027, aiming to cut inference costs and reduce Nvidia dependence while maintaining hybrid GPU usage. Recent fiscal Q4 results showed Azure revenue surging 43% year-over-year to surpass $100 billion annually, with Microsoft Cloud at $59.3 billion and Copilot seats exceeding 30 million, supporting operating margins near 45%. The stock has rebounded sharply from June lows, reclaiming a $4 trillion market capitalization intraday as investor focus shifts to AI economics and efficiency gains ahead of the late-October earnings release.