An investment in OpenAI has been a factor behind Microsoft’s gains
Tech giant Microsoft re-entered the $2 trillion club after a six-month gap,following a rally in the company shares helping it to close above $2 trillion on Wednesday.
The rally is seen in the line with the current rebound in technology stocks.
Microsoft rose as much as 3.4 percent to $276.76 early Wednesday, joining Apple Inc. as the only stocks with market capitalisations above $2 trillion, Bloomberg reported.
This is the first time it has exceeded that level since August after rallying 29 percent from a November low.
Apple has a market value of about $2.44 trillion.
Recent gains in the stock have come amid widespread investor interest in all things related to artificial intelligence.
Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI
Last month, Microsoft announced that it’s stepping up its investment in OpenAI, the owner of a wildly popular chat bot.
At an event on February 7, the company unveiled a version of its Bing internet-search engine powered by the ChatGPT technology.
Microsoft stock is up 15 percent so far this year, compared with a gain of 16 percent in the Nasdaq 100 Index.
Nvidia Corp., a chipmaker that has benefited from the interest in AI, has soared 55 percent, while Apple has gained 19 percent this year.
In January, Microsoft reported quarterly results that were seen as mixed, with the company warning of a slowdown in cloud and business software sales.
Separately, Britain’s antitrust watchdog provisionally found that the tech giant’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will harm competition in the UK gaming market.