"Burning money" is easy, making money is hard! Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) AI's big investment return suffered a bitter defeat and was sold off, with its market value evaporating by $357 billion in a single day.

Note that Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) suffered a heavy blow in the selling spree on Thursday, with its market value evaporating by $357 billion in an instant, setting the second largest single-day market value loss in the history of the US stock market. The stock price of this software giant closed down by 10%, marking its largest single-day drop since March 2020. Prior to this, Microsoft Corporation's financial report released after Wednesday's market close showed that its spending on artificial intelligence reached a record level, while the growth rate of its key cloud business division slowed down. Data shows that the only larger single-day market value decline in history was last year when NVIDIA Corporation faced a $593 billion crash after releasing a low-cost AI model. The market value evaporated by Microsoft Corporation this time even exceeded the combined market value of over 90% of the members of the S&P 500 index. This chilling effect also spread to other areas, with peer stocks including Alphabet and NVIDIA Corporation experiencing drops of over $100 billion on Thursday. However, Alphabet's stock price later rebounded, closing up by 0.7%, while Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) closed down by 0.5%. At the same time as this sell-off, investors' doubts about whether large tech companies investing billions of dollars in AI will eventually pay off are increasing. Microsoft Corporation's financial report showed that its capital expenditure in the latest quarter increased by 66% to a record $37.5 billion, while the growth of its Azure cloud computing business slowed down compared to the previous quarter. Microsoft Corporation also stated that it faces some capacity constraints in meeting the demand for artificial intelligence. In addition, it has remaining performance obligations of $625 billion, with about 45% coming from its strategic partner OpenAI. Microsoft Corporation's CFO Amy Hood stated in Wednesday's financial report conference call, "Approximately 45% of our commercial RPO balance comes from OpenAI. The remaining balance grew 28%, reflecting strong continued demand for our product portfolio." Matthew Maley, Chief Market Strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., said, "As it becomes increasingly clear that Microsoft Corporation is unable to generate strong returns on its massive AI investments, its stock price needs to be revalued downward to a level more consistent with its historical fair value." One of Microsoft Corporation's worst performances in history Since its IPO in 1986, the stock has only experienced a few larger declines. If the decline continues, this will be one of Microsoft Corporation's most serious sell-offs since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 16, 2020, when Microsoft Corporation's stock price plummeted by 14.7%. Further back, we have to go to April 24, 2000, when Microsoft Corporation's stock price dropped by 15.6%. In that month, a US district judge ruled that Microsoft Corporation had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, dealing a double blow to the company. Meanwhile, the dot-com bubble also began to burst.