New York, Feb 19, 2026, 10:30 (EST) — Regular session
- Microsoft shares climbed in the morning session, outpacing the broader tech proxies.
- The company laid out plans for extended AI spending and rolled out fresh enterprise partnerships.
- A director snapped up about $2 million worth of shares just as the stock went ex-dividend.
Microsoft (MSFT.O) climbed roughly 0.7% to $402.50 late Thursday morning, bucking weakness in the broader market. The Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq, dipped about 0.1%, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF edged down 0.2%.
Investors are pressing for more tangible returns from the stock as megacap tech pours cash into AI, while cloud demand remains tough to pin down. In this environment, new customer signings and deals tied directly to client budgets have started to matter more.
Thursday is Microsoft’s ex-dividend date, the deadline for shareholders to qualify for the next payout. Stocks frequently drop by about the size of the dividend on these days, clouding intraday price action.
Microsoft told an AI summit in New Delhi on Wednesday it expects to pour $50 billion into expanding AI across the “Global South,” referring to developing and lower-income economies, by decade’s end. 1
Microsoft and CrowdStrike have deepened their partnership, making CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform available through the Microsoft Marketplace. The move lets customers use their existing Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment spending on Falcon. “Security is the foundation for AI Transformation,” said Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s commercial business chief. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz weighed in, too: “Adversaries don’t wait for budget cycles, and neither should security teams.” 2
CrowdStrike climbed roughly 0.8% to $419.17. This push taps into Azure Consumption Commitments—that is, cloud spending companies have locked in—as software players jostle for slices of infrastructure budgets already spoken for.
Canadian Tire Corp plans to develop and expand a custom retail intelligence platform using Microsoft Azure. The company is also deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot for its corporate staff. “CTC is helping shape what the future of retail can look like in Canada,” said Matt Milton, president of Microsoft Canada. 3
Microsoft director John W. Stanton picked up 5,000 shares at $397.35 apiece on Feb. 18, according to a regulatory filing, putting about $2.0 million to work. After the purchase, Stanton directly held 83,905 shares and another 3,622 through a family trust. 4
Microsoft’s board approved a quarterly dividend of $0.91 per share, set for payout on March 12. Investors must be on record by Feb. 19, which is also the ex-dividend date for the stock. 5
Shares of Microsoft have dropped 17% this year and are down 23% in the last six months, MarketWatch noted, making it the laggard of the Magnificent Seven. With that slide, the stock’s become more reactive to news of fresh deals—and evidence that its AI efforts are translating into regular revenue. 6
Still, the stock faces ongoing headline and regulatory risks tied to government use of its cloud products. Microsoft responded to a Guardian report that referenced leaked documents, saying it doesn’t believe U.S. immigration agency ICE is using its technology for mass surveillance. “Microsoft policies and terms of service do not allow our technology to be used for the mass surveillance of civilians,” a spokesperson said. 7
Eyes shift to Nvidia’s quarterly report, due Feb. 25, as investors hunt for fresh indicators on AI and cloud momentum. The focus: big-tech spending and what’s next for megacaps after their recent stumble. 8
