Microsoft set a new market record after stronger-than-expected cloud growth triggered a 16% surge in its shares, adding approximately $450 billion to its market capitalization in one session and surpassing the previous record of roughly $440 billion set by Nvidia. The stock rose to about $451.10, marking its strongest daily gain since October 2008. The increase was larger than the combined market value of the 41 smallest members of the S&P 500. The main catalyst was Microsoft’s cloud business: Azure revenue rose 43% during the fiscal fourth quarter, accelerating to its fastest growth rate since early 2022 and beating expectations for roughly 40%. Azure generated more than $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time during the fiscal year ending in June, and management forecasts Azure growth of approximately 45% in the current quarter. Demand is still exceeding available capacity. Microsoft now has more than 30 million paying users for Microsoft 365 Copilot, up from about 20 million only three months earlier. Quarterly revenue increased 18% to $90 billion, compared with market expectations of approximately $87.7 billion. Profit reached $4.81 per share, well above the consensus estimate of $4.25, including a roughly 33-cent-per-share contribution from the rising value of Microsoft’s investment in Anthropic.