Goldman Sachs named Microsoft its top artificial-intelligence pick after meeting company leaders in Europe and San Francisco. It maintains a Buy rating, citing a $51 billion fourth-quarter rise in remaining performance obligations, all from enterprise customers.
Investing.com reported Goldman met with IR head Jonathan Neilson and IR director Danielle Criste in Stockholm, Zurich and London the week of Sept. 14, after meeting CFO Amy Hood in San Francisco the previous week. Goldman said long-term capital spending gives Microsoft more flexibility on near-term outlays; it also cited investment across its own applications and third-party customers as improving Copilot and Microsoft AI output. Microsoft is also on Goldman's Conviction List of about 20–25 differentiated fundamental buy ideas across its U.S. coverage.
Microsoft's remaining performance obligations totaled $625 billion on Dec. 31, 2025, up 110% year over year; roughly 45% was tied to OpenAI. CNBC reported that AI GPU demand was already outpacing supply at the time. Separately, Microsoft announced about 4,800 global job cuts in July, with Xbox disproportionately affected. The Information reported hundreds of additional Xbox cuts and studio consolidations this week, but Microsoft has not confirmed the scope of that second round.
