New York, February 12, 2026, 10:09 EST — Regular session
- MSFT extends a pullback as investors fixate on AI infrastructure costs
- Microsoft tests new power-tech ideas for its fast-growing data-center footprint
- Wall Street strategists argue the software selloff has overshot near-term risks
Microsoft shares fell about 0.6% on Thursday morning, as investors kept a tight focus on what it takes to build and power the data centers behind the company’s AI push.
The move mattered because Microsoft has become a proxy for the wider “AI capex” trade — big spending now, payoffs later — and traders have been quick to fade the stock when costs look sticky. That sensitivity has shown up in sharp daily swings since late January. (Reuters)
There is also a timing issue. With the market leaning on a handful of megacaps for index direction, any wobble in Microsoft can drag sentiment across software and cloud names just as investors try to price the next leg of rate expectations. (Reuters)
As of mid-morning, Microsoft was at $401.83, down $2.54 from Wednesday’s close, after trading between $400.28 and $407.05. Shares finished Wednesday at $404.37, down 2.15%, according to Yahoo Finance data. (Yahoo Finance)
A Reuters report this week added another angle to the story: Microsoft is exploring superconducting power lines in its data centers, a technology it said could help it pack more electricity into less space. “The technology helps us scale power density without expanding our physical footprint,” said Husam Alissa, who leads the Systems Technology Team at Microsoft’s CO+I CTO Office. (Reuters)
The push comes as big tech’s race to electrify giant server warehouses runs into an old constraint — grid capacity. On Wednesday, AI company Anthropic outlined steps to limit the hit to consumer energy bills from data-center expansion, and Reuters noted the measures echoed Microsoft’s own recent efforts to cover power costs and work with utilities to expand supply for its facilities. (Reuters)
Some strategists have started to argue that the selling in software has gone too far for the next few months. JPMorgan strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote that “the market is pricing in worst-case AI disruption scenarios” that are unlikely to play out over the next three to six months, and they pointed to a basket of “higher quality” software names that includes Microsoft. Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty also called the valuation dislocation “sentiment-driven, not fundamental,” in a separate note. (Reuters)
Still, Microsoft bulls have to live with a few unknowns. The company has not said what it will spend on superconducting work or when it could deploy the cables at scale, and the broader question — whether AI-linked infrastructure costs keep rising faster than returns — has been the pressure point since its last earnings update. (Reuters)
For the next session, traders will be watching macro data that can reset tech valuations quickly. The U.S. Labor Department’s January Consumer Price Index is due on Friday, Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. ET, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics schedule. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Any surprise there, and the rate path gets repriced again — and Microsoft, sitting in the middle of the AI spending debate, is unlikely to stay quiet in the tape.
