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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella listen to an audience member question during the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Wash., on November 30, 2016.

Stephen Brashear | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Microsoft shares were trading down as much as 5% on Wednesday, a day after the software maker issued worse-than-expected quarterly revenue guidance. Many analysts remained optimistic about the company’s prospects, but a few fretted about how recent investments in artificial intelligence won’t immediately come to fruition.

Growth in AI has the potential to propel Microsoft’s two largest businesses: the Azure public cloud and the more traditional, and market-leading, Office productivity software.

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Microsoft has been increasing its capital expenditures to get infrastructure in place to provide AI services to developers at other companies and roll out assistant capabilities to apps such as Word and Outlook. The extra spending cuts into Microsoft’s cloud gross margin.

Last week, Microsoft said its Copilot assistant for these Microsoft 365 applications would cost $30 per person per month on top of regular subscription prices. The company did not say when it would start charging. On Tuesday’s call, Amy Hood, Microsoft’s finance chief, said growth from AI services would be “gradual” as Azure AI tools gain in popularity and Copilots such as the one for Microsoft 365 become generally available. She said that for the current 2024 fiscal year, which will end in June 2024, the impact would mainly come in the second half.

Some investors will probably have to change their expectations on revenue as a result of Hood’s comments, JPMorgan analysts led by Mark Murphy, with a buy rating on Microsoft stock, wrote in a Wednesday note.

“The messaging on Copilot was more about tempering rather than inflating expectations,” wrote UBS analysts led by Karl Keirstead, which also has a buy rating on Microsoft.

Members of the public became captivated by the ChatGPT chatbot from startup OpenAI, which relies on Azure, after its release in late 2022. It’s a prominent example of generative AI, which accepts human input such as text or an image and automatically creates content in response. Companies selling productivity software, including Atlassian, have been hurrying to incorporate such generative features into their products, and delays in Microsoft’s release of its all-important Office suite could mean missing out on a clear growth opportunity.

“Overall, while it will take some additional time for the revenue to materialize, we expect MSFT, with its increasingly unique set of AI-infused Cloud services, is well positioned take share across its numerous operating segments in the coming years,” Stifel analysts led by Brad Reback, with a buy rating on the stock, wrote in a note distributed to clients.

Raymond James’ Andrew Marok and Mauricio Munoz, with the equivalent of a buy rating on Microsoft shares, had a similar tone.

“While the contribution may not come as quickly as hoped as AI-enabled products are tested, deployed, and eventually used at scale, MSFT’s position as an AI leader remains unblemished by today’s report,” they wrote.

Even if the clear growth probably won’t show up in 2023, during the call with analysts on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that when it comes to new AI workloads in the cloud, Microsoft is in the lead.

CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

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Cakmak: Amazon shares are selling off because of concerns around Microsoft

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Trump advisor Navarro rips Apple’s Tim Cook for not moving production out of China fast enough

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Trump advisor Navarro rips Apple's Tim Cook for not moving production out of China fast enough

Peter Navarro: 'Inconceivable' that Apple could not produce iPhones outside China

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro chastised Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday over the company’s response to pressure from the Trump administration to make more of its products outside of China.

“Going back to the first Trump term, Tim Cook has continually asked for more time in order to move his factories out of China,” Navarro said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “I mean it’s the longest-running soap opera in Silicon Valley.”

CNBC has reached out to Apple for comment on Navarro’s criticism.

President Donald Trump has in recent months ramped up demands for Apple to move production of its iconic iPhone to the U.S. from overseas. Apple’s flagship phone is produced primarily in China, but the company has increasingly boosted production in India, partly to avoid the higher cost of Trump’s tariffs.

Trump in May warned Apple would have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for iPhones made outside the U.S. In separate remarks, Trump said he told Cook, “I don’t want you building in India.”

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Analysts and supply chain experts have argued it would be impossible for Apple to completely move iPhone production to the U.S. By some estimates, a U.S.-made iPhone could cost as much as $3,500.

Navarro said Cook isn’t shifting production out of China quickly enough.

“With all these new advanced manufacturing techniques and the way things are moving with AI and things like that, it’s inconceivable to me that Tim Cook could not produce his iPhones elsewhere around the world and in this country,” Navarro said.

Apple currently makes very few products in the U.S. During Trump’s first term, Apple extended its commitment to assemble the $3,000 Mac Pro in Texas.

In February, Apple said it would spend $500 billion within the U.S., including on assembling some AI servers.

WATCH: Apple’s $500 billion investment: For AI servers not manufacturing iPhones

Apple's $500 billion U.S. investment: For AI servers not manufacturing iPhones

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CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in $9 billion all-stock deal

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CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in  billion all-stock deal

CoreWeave founders Brian Venturo, at left in sweatshirt, and Mike Intrator slap five after ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq headquarters in New York on March 28, 2025.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence hyperscaler CoreWeave said Monday it will acquire Core Scientific, a leading data center infrastructure provider, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $9 billion.

Coreweave stock fell about 4% on Monday while Core Scientific stock plummeted about 20%. Shares of both companies rallied at the end of June after the Wall Street Journal reported that talks were underway for an acquisition.

The deal strengthens CoreWeave’s position in the AI arms race by bringing critical infrastructure in-house.

CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said the move will eliminate $10 billion in future lease obligations and significantly enhance operating efficiency.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.

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The deal expands CoreWeave’s access to power and real estate, giving it ownership of 1.3 gigawatts of gross capacity across Core Scientific’s U.S. data center footprint, with another gigawatt available for future growth.

Core Scientific has increasingly focused on high-performance compute workloads since emerging from bankruptcy and relisting on the Nasdaq in 2024.

Core Scientific shareholders will receive 0.1235 CoreWeave shares for each share they hold — implying a $20.40 per-share valuation and a 66% premium to Core Scientific’s closing stock price before deal talks were reported.

After closing, Core Scientific shareholders will own less than 10% of the combined company.

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Apple appeals 500 million euro EU fine over App Store policies

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Apple appeals 500 million euro EU fine over App Store policies

Two young men stand inside a shopping mall in front of a large illuminated Apple logo seen through a window in Chongqing, China, on June 4, 2025.

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Apple on Monday appealed what it called an “unprecedented” 500 million euro ($586 million) fine issued by the European Union for violating the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.

“As our appeal will show, the EC [European Commission] is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users,” the company said in a statement. “We implemented this to avoid punitive daily fines and will share the facts with the Court.”

Apple recently made changes to its App Store‘s European policies that the company said would be in compliance with the DMA and would avoid the fines.

The Commission, which is the executive body of the EU, announced its fine in April, saying that Apple “breached its anti-steering obligation” under the DMA with restrictions on the App Store.

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“Due to a number of restrictions imposed by Apple, app developers cannot fully benefit from the advantages of alternative distribution channels outside the App Store,” the commission wrote. “Similarly, consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers.”

Under the DMA, tech giants like Apple and Google are required to allow businesses to inform end-users of offers outside their platform — including those at different prices or with different conditions.

Companies like Epic Games and Spotify have complained about restrictions within the App Store that make it harder for them to communicate alternative payment methods to iOS users.

Apple typically takes a 15%-30% cut on in-app purchases.

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