New York, Feb 19, 2026, 10:30 (EST) — Regular session
- Microsoft shares rose in morning trade, outperforming broad tech proxies.
- The company outlined a long-dated AI investment push and announced new enterprise tie-ups.
- A director disclosed a roughly $2 million share purchase as the stock trades ex-dividend.
Microsoft (MSFT.O) shares rose about 0.7% to $402.50 in late morning trade on Thursday, running ahead of a softer broader tape. The Nasdaq-tracking Invesco QQQ ETF was down about 0.1% and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF slipped 0.2%.
The stock has become a pressure point in megacap tech, with investors looking for clearer payback from AI-heavy spending and a steadier read on cloud demand. Fresh customer wins and budget-linked partnerships have carried more weight in that kind of market.
Thursday also marks Microsoft’s ex-dividend date — the cutoff to receive its next payout — which can blur day-to-day moves because stocks often adjust by roughly the dividend amount.
On Wednesday, Microsoft said at an AI summit in New Delhi that it is on pace to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to help expand AI to countries across the “Global South,” a term generally used for developing or lower-income economies. (Reuters)
Microsoft and CrowdStrike said they expanded their alliance so customers can buy CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform on Microsoft Marketplace and apply existing Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment spending toward it. “Security is the foundation for AI Transformation,” Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business, said. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said: “Adversaries don’t wait for budget cycles, and neither should security teams.” (Source)
CrowdStrike shares rose about 0.8% to $419.17. The move leans on Azure Consumption Commitments — essentially pre-agreed cloud spending — as software vendors fight for budgets already earmarked for infrastructure.
Canadian Tire Corp said it will build and scale a custom retail intelligence platform on Microsoft Azure and is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to corporate employees. “CTC is helping shape what the future of retail can look like in Canada,” Matt Milton, president of Microsoft Canada, said. (Canadiantire)
A regulatory filing showed Microsoft director John W. Stanton bought 5,000 shares at $397.35 each on Feb. 18, an outlay of about $2.0 million. He reported owning 83,905 shares directly after the trade, plus 3,622 held indirectly through a family trust. (SEC)
Microsoft’s board declared a $0.91-per-share quarterly dividend payable March 12 to shareholders of record on Feb. 19, with the stock trading ex-dividend on Feb. 19. (Source)
Microsoft has fallen 17% year-to-date and 23% over the past six months, making it the weakest performer among the so-called Magnificent Seven, MarketWatch reported. That backdrop has left the shares more sensitive to deal flow — and to signs that AI products are turning into steady revenue. (MarketWatch)
But the stock still carries headline and regulatory risk around how its cloud tools are used by governments. Microsoft said it does not think U.S. immigration agency ICE uses its technology for mass surveillance after a Guardian report cited leaked documents. “Microsoft policies and terms of service do not allow our technology to be used for the mass surveillance of civilians,” a spokesperson said. (Reuters)
Investors now look to the next wave of AI and cloud signals, including Nvidia’s quarterly results on Feb. 25, for clues on whether big-tech spending — and the recent slump in megacaps — has further to run. (MarketWatch)
