Microsoft logo hangs beside an illuminated iCloud icon at the CeBIT 2017 tech fair in Hannover, Germany. (Photo: Krisztian Bocsi / Bloomberg 
Recent gains in the stock have come amid widespread investor interest in all things related to artificial intelligence. Last month, Microsoft announced that it’s stepping up its investment in OpenAI, the owner of a wildly popular chat bot. At an event on Feb. 7, the company unveiled a version of its Bing internet-search engine powered by the ChatGPT technology.
So far this year, the stock is up 15%, compared with a gain of 16% in the Nasdaq 100 Index. Nvidia Corp., a chipmaker that has benefited from the interest in AI, has soared 55%. Apple has gained 19% this year.
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In January, Microsoft reported quarterly results that were seen as mixed, with the company warning of a slowdown in cloud and business software sales.
Separately, Britain’s antitrust watchdog provisionally found that Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will harm competition in the UK gaming market.