New York, Jan 17, 2026, 09:35 EST — Market closed.
Microsoft (MSFT) shares are heading into next week with a new legal cloud looming. Elon Musk claims he’s after as much as $134 billion from OpenAI and Microsoft over what he calls “wrongful gains.” Musk told a federal court that OpenAI made between $65.5 billion and $109.4 billion, while Microsoft pulled in $13.3 billion to $25.1 billion from his early backing. The case is set for a jury trial in April. Friday’s session saw MSFT gain 0.7%, closing at $459.86, though it’s still down roughly 3.6% on the week. Reuters
The timing is crucial as U.S. stock markets close for the weekend and remain shut Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, delaying the next trading session until Tuesday. This extends the window for investors to digest the legal and regulatory developments surrounding a firm increasingly seen as a barometer for AI investment.
Macro jitters weighed on the market. Wall Street’s major indexes closed Friday a bit down and finished the week in the red, following a turbulent start to 2026 that left megacap tech stocks vulnerable to shifts in interest rates and policy news.
Italy’s competition authority announced on Friday that it has launched probes into Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard division, targeting allegedly “misleading and aggressive” sales tactics in the free-to-play mobile games “Diablo Immortal” and “Call of Duty Mobile.” The watchdog highlighted concerns over virtual currencies and in-app prompts that may lead players, including minors, to overspend without fully realizing it. It also raised issues around parental controls and the clarity of contractual rights. Reuters
Microsoft has joined the growing movement to monetize training data for generative AI—systems that create text, images, and more from prompts. The Wikimedia Foundation revealed it has struck deals with Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, aiming to get compensated by companies using Wikipedia content to train AI models. “Wikipedia is a critical component of these tech companies’ work that they need to figure out how to support financially,” said Lane Becker, president of Wikimedia Enterprise, in an interview with Reuters. Meanwhile, Microsoft corporate VP Tim Frank added, “Access to high-quality, trustworthy information is at the heart of how we think about the future of AI.” Reuters
Microsoft has struck a deal with Indigo Carbon to purchase 2.85 million soil carbon credits over 12 years, Reuters reported, marking the largest transaction ever in this sector. A source estimated the deal’s value between $171 million and $228 million, based on prices ranging from $60 to $80 per ton; each credit offsets one ton of CO2 removed or stored. Indigo’s Meredith Reisfield highlighted the move as a boost for soil carbon removal in corporate climate efforts. Microsoft’s Phillip Goodman expressed enthusiasm for Indigo’s regenerative agriculture model.
A recent regulatory filing revealed a minor insider transaction. On Thursday, Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s executive VP and chief human resources officer, sold 32.587 shares at $459.38 each. After the sale, she still holds roughly 49,331 shares directly.
The risk for bulls isn’t any one headline but the piling up of them. Litigation linked to OpenAI, consumer-protection investigations into gaming monetisation, and growing scrutiny of AI infrastructure’s cost and environmental impact could all squeeze compliance expenses and margins tighter.
Tuesday’s action will reveal if the long weekend’s headlines spark lasting moves or just short-lived noise that dies down once liquidity picks up. Still, the key driver for MSFT could end up being its guidance.
Microsoft plans to release its fiscal 2026 second-quarter earnings after markets close on Wednesday, Jan. 28, followed by a webcast at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Investors will zero in on the latest cloud demand trends and AI spending, along with management’s take on exposure tied to OpenAI.
