Microsoft’s monetization of artificial intelligence will drive the company to a $3 trillion market capitalization by early 2024, says Wedbush.
Analyst Dan Ives wrote in a research note Wednesday that he believes Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) should join Apple (AAPL) in the $3 trillion market-cap club by early 2024. What should drive the stock higher is monetization of AI, which is the company’s next step and should come sooner than Wall Street expects, Ives said.
“In this ‘Game of Thrones’ battle for AI market share we view the enterprise as the golden-goose opportunity as we estimate the AI market opportunity is an $800 billion market over the next decade,” Ives wrote.
Microsoft stock has jumped more than 40% in 2023 as investors have bought up shares of the tech giant amid excitement surrounding the possibilities of AI. Ives rates the stock at Outperform with a $375 price target.
In early Wednesday trading, Microsoft stock is up 0.3% to $339.04, with a market cap of $2.5 trillion. The stock needs to hit $403.47 to reach a $3 trillion market cap, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Apple became the first company to reach a $3 trillion market cap last week.
Ives believes that ChatGPT will be the “next leg of growth” for Microsoft, and will help drive shares higher. In January, Microsoft increased its investment in OpenAI, which is the software company responsible for ChatGPT—the popular generative AI platform that interacts with users in a conversational way. Then in February, Microsoft upgraded search engine Bing to include the generative AI technology behind ChatGPT.
