By Mackenzie Tatananni
Microsoft stock has fallen for six straight days. The culprit? A resurgence of fears tied to artificial-intelligence spending, which at one point put the stock on pace for its worst losing streak since March 2020.
As the broader market mostly rose, Microsoft shares dipped into the red on Friday, falling as low as $382 and threatening the worst weekly performance in more than six years. However, the stock rebounded slightly in intraday trading, falling less than a percentage point to $386.91.
Tech stocks in general have been hard hit lately amid renewed concerns over AI spending. Those fears reared their head as recently as Thursday, when Oracle said it expected to log $70 billion in capital expenditures for the current fiscal year, up from $56 billion last year and $21 billion the year prior.
Investors have long been anxious about Oracle's heavy capital spending burden. But the latest numbers intensified the negative narratives around AI, which triggered a selloff in chip stocks that quickly spread to other parts of the market.
Microsoft is one of the foremost hyperscalers, the big names in tech spending billions on the buildout of data centers. The company is actively monetizing AI, and just last week unveiled its own in-house foundational models to put more distance between itself and OpenAI -- a striking pivot for the company that was the first to invest massively in the ChatGPT maker.
As a result, Microsoft -- once associated with software products like its Office suite -- is now regarded as one of the premier AI plays. This makes it sensitive to the whims of the sector.
Only adding fuel to the fire is SpaceX's public listing. The stock opened at $150 on Friday, above its initial public offering price of $135. Although it's often oversimplified as an aerospace play, SpaceX's debut is also the first major market test for AI companies, by virtue of its combination with xAI earlier this year.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 12, 2026 12:25 ET (16:25 GMT)
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