Microsoft (MSFT) traded lower Wednesday while fresh AI-infrastructure headlines — a $9.7 billion capacity deal with IREN and a new 200‑megawatt data‑center expansion in the UAE with G42 — kept attention on the company’s heavy investment cycle after last week’s earnings beat.
Live price snapshot (intraday) — As of 19:51 UTC, MSFT was down about 1.19% at $508.23, after opening at $513.25 and trading between $508.04–$514.81. That puts shares below the ~50‑day average (≈$514), with an implied market value around $3.85T. 1
What’s moving Microsoft stock today
1) Microsoft & G42 unveil 200MW data‑center expansion in the UAE (Nov. 5).
Microsoft and Abu Dhabi–based G42 announced a 200‑megawatt increase in regional capacity to bolster Azure’s sovereign cloud services, part of an investment plan totaling $15.2 billion in the UAE through 2029. Initial capacity is expected to start coming online before the end of 2026 and will be delivered via G42’s Khazna Data Centers. 2
2) The $9.7B IREN deal is still front and center (Nov. 3–4).
Earlier this week, Microsoft signed a five‑year, $9.7 billion agreement with Australia’s IREN to secure access to Nvidia’s GB300 GPUs, including a 20% prepayment from Microsoft. IREN separately disclosed a $5.8B hardware purchase agreement with Dell to supply and deploy the GPUs at its Childress, Texas campus. The pact aims to ease Azure’s AI‑compute bottleneck and has been widely cited as a notable capacity win. 3
3) A creative‑tools tie‑up: Pantone x Microsoft (Nov. 5).
Pantone launched a beta Pantone Palette Generator built on Azure OpenAI and other Microsoft AI services — a smaller headline, but another example of Azure’s expanding developer ecosystem and real‑world AI workflows. 4
The backdrop: last week’s earnings and the capex debate
Results were strong — capex was stronger.
For fiscal Q1 2026 (quarter ended Sept. 30), Microsoft reported revenue of $77.7B (+18% YoY) and said Azure grew ~40%, outpacing expectations. Management guided continued strength but flagged that AI‑capacity constraints will likely persist through at least June 2026. Reuters also highlighted record quarterly capex near $35B, with spending expected to rise further this year — a key reason shares have been choppy post‑print. 5
Accounting hit from OpenAI stake, noted by Microsoft IR.
Microsoft’s own investor materials show net income and EPS were reduced by $3.1B and $0.41 respectively due to investment losses related to OpenAI in the quarter — a point some investors have focused on even as operating trends remain robust. 6
Street color and technical picture
- Analyst chatter: A new note today from BNP Paribas Exane lifted its MSFT price target (to $632, per MarketBeat’s roundup) and reiterated an “outperform,” citing durable cloud/AI growth — though the stock’s reaction remains muted intraday. 7
- Trend check: MSFT is trading below its 50‑day moving average (~$514), a near‑term technical overhang after the post‑earnings slide. 1
Why today’s headlines matter to investors
- Capacity is the new currency. The UAE 200MW build and the IREN supply agreement both speak to Microsoft’s near‑term strategy: secure compute (and power) fast to monetize Azure AI demand — without bearing all the chip procurement and construction risk on its own balance sheet every time. 2
- Capex narrative continues. Each capacity announcement supports growth but also keeps margin debate alive, a dynamic evident in last week’s trading after the earnings beat. Expect the market to keep toggling between growth optimism and ROI scrutiny as Azure’s AI workloads scale. 5
What to watch next
- Execution milestones on IREN/Dell deployments (timelines at Childress, Texas; ramp toward 200MW of critical IT load). 8
- UAE rollout cadence (first capacity before end‑2026) and any updates on regional chip export approvals and sovereign‑cloud wins. 2
- Capacity constraints vs. demand — management has said shortages may persist into mid‑2026; watch for signs the gap is narrowing as new capacity comes online. 5
Quick facts (Nov. 5, 2025, intraday)
- Price: $508.23 (−~1.19% vs. prior close)
- Range: $508.04–$514.81 | Open: $513.25
- Market cap: ≈$3.85T | Below 50‑DMA: ~$514
Source: live market data; moving‑average reference via Yahoo Finance. 1
Disclosure: This article is for information only and is not investment advice.
