Microsoft’s stock has been plagued by ‘apathy.’ Can it excite Wall Street once more?

Microsoft’s stock has been plagued by ‘apathy.’ Can it excite Wall Street once more?Listen(4 min)Listen(4 min)Microsoft was once viewed as an early artificial-intelligence leader, thanks in part to its longstanding relationship with OpenAI. Now the company and its shares have fallen out of investors’ good graces.With shares down 24% so far this year, Microsoft MSFT will need a more ambitious AI strategy to drive consumer and enterprise adoption. The stock has been weighed down by lackluster momentum for the Azure cloud-computing business and the Copilot AI assistant, and Wall Street is feeling decidedly apathetic about Microsoft’s future.About the AuthorChristine Ji is a reporter covering Big Tech.A Dow Jones CompanyCopyright © 2026 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.