HSBC and Google Cloud Announce Multi-Year AI Partnership
Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.COPILOT:Microsoftis shifting Copilot Cowork to usage-based pricing as enterprise AI workloads become more compute-intensive and expensive to support, while also evaluating an optional Azure-hosted version of DeepSeek as a lower-cost model alternative, a move that reflects a broader multi-model strategy but could attract political and security scrutiny given DeepSeek's Chinese origins, Ina Fried of Axios.AI STAKES:Senior Trump administration officials have explored ways to structure potential government equity stakes in major AI companies ahead of export control actions affecting Anthropic, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent favoring using such stakes to seed "Trump Accounts" and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick instead preferring channeling them into a sovereign wealth fund structure, Semafor's Eleanor Mueller. The talks about possible AI stakes ceded to the government are still in the early stages, sources say.EXPORT CONTROLS:According to sources, Trump officials weighed Anthropic export controls weeks before forcing its models offline, after a dispute over giving China-linked firm Mythos access, The Washington Post.AI INFRASTRUCTURE:HPE announced Vultr has selected HPEand NVIDIAfor large-scale AI datacenter deployments designed to support rapidly growing enterprise demand for private cloud and AI workloads. Vultr has selected the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 by HPE connected with NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking, part of the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE portfolio, to power its next-generation AI infrastructure environments designed for enterprise-scale AI workloads. These deployments combine HPE's AI factory capabilities with NVIDIA accelerated computing, networking, and software to deliver a scalable, production-ready AI platform optimized for high-performance model training and inference.AI, CLOUD SECURITY OPERATIONS:CrowdStrike, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, announced new AI, cloud, and Next-Gen SIEM innovations that help organizations securely build, deploy, and operate AI applications and cloud workloads on AWS. CrowdStrike said it is expanding CrowdStrike Falcon AI Detection and Response capabilities on AWS, helping organizations identify and mitigate AI runtime risks across AI applications built with AWS technologies including Amazon Bedrock, Kiro, and Strands Agents.AMAZON BEDROCK AGENTCORE:SentinelOneannounced its upcoming integration with AmazonBedrock AgentCore. The integration will be delivered through SentinelOne's Prompt Security offering. The company said, "Amazon Bedrock AgentCore is the platform to build, connect, and optimize agents at scale. Through its policy engine, AgentCore enforces real-time, deterministic controls at the gateway across all agent traffic including agent-to-tool, agent-to-LLM, and agent-to-agent communications. With this integration, SentinelOne's Prompt Security will provide detection signals covering prompt injection detection, PII exposure, tool-use validation, LLM response monitoring, and data leakage prevention that feed into AgentCore policy engine. AgentCore acts on those signals at the gateway, outside the agent's reasoning loop, so enterprise teams can apply SentinelOne's detection signals alongside deterministic, automated enforcement consistently across all agent activity. Because detection can be probabilistic, but enforcement stays deterministic, customers gain consistent allow-or-deny decisions on every agent action, allowing organizations to adopt agentic AI at enterprise scale with the confidence that existing SentinelOne security controls apply automatically throughout every agentic workflow."Netskopeannounced its upcoming integration with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. The upcoming integration reflects Netskope's commitment to extending the security controls customers already trust into agentic workflows, the company said.Rubrikannounced its upcoming Rubrik Agent Cloud integration with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. The upcoming integration reflects Rubrik's commitment to extending the security controls customers already trust into agentic workflows, the company said.MULTI-YEAR PARTNERSHIP:HSBCand Google Cloudannounced a multi-year partnership to build and deploy AI capabilities across HSBC's operations globally, accelerating innovation in areas such as hyper-personalized advice and financial crime risk management. This new collaboration will further accelerate the shift towards AI-enabled ways of working across HSBC's global operations. HSBC will work with Google Cloud and Google DeepMind engineering teams to collaborate on new AI-powered tools and programs, with access to Google's latest agentic AI capabilities, including Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. The partnership is expected to enable more than 200 new AI HSBC use cases over the next two years. Along with simplifying processes, it will also support the identification and prioritization of the highest value initiatives for investment and delivery at HSBC, each of which the bank estimates could return more than $100M in either direct revenue gains or wider efficiency improvements. This is on top of an existing footprint of more than 600 HSBC applications already running on Google Cloud.
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- Financial Performance Analysis: Microsoft reported an 18% year-over-year revenue increase in the last quarter, with its intelligent cloud segment growing by 30%, indicating strong demand in the AI sector, despite the stock price dropping over 30% from its peak.
- Capital Expenditure Plans: The company expects capital expenditures to reach $190 billion for the current fiscal year, more than 60% higher than last year, reflecting Microsoft's commitment to AI infrastructure, although investors remain skeptical about this spending.
- Copilot User Growth: The paid version of Microsoft's Copilot has grown to 20 million users from 15 million last quarter, indicating a foundation for future commercialization, despite slow market share growth against competitors.
- Analyst Ratings Optimistic: Over 80% of analysts rate Microsoft as a strong buy, with a 12-month price target of $559.02, representing a 46% upside from the current stock price, reflecting confidence in the company's future growth prospects.
- Microsoft Stake Value: Microsoft's 27% stake in OpenAI is valued at approximately $135 billion, and if OpenAI goes public at $1 trillion, this stake could be worth about $270 billion, significantly enhancing Microsoft's market capitalization and potentially accounting for 9% of its total value.
- IPO Timing Delay: OpenAI is now targeting a 2027 IPO, as CEO Sam Altman refuses to accept a valuation below $1 trillion, a decision that could impact Microsoft's investment returns and force the market to reassess the value of its assets.
- Microsoft Financial Performance: Despite a declining stock price, Microsoft reported $82.9 billion in revenue for Q3 2026, an 18% year-over-year increase, with earnings per share rising 23% to $4.27, demonstrating strong growth potential in its core business.
- Capital Expenditure Pressure: Microsoft anticipates capital expenditures of $190 billion in 2026, including $25 billion due to rising component prices, which may pressure profit margins in the coming years, causing investor concerns about the sustainability of its growth.
- Stock Price Plunge: Microsoft's stock dropped 10% from $481.63 to $433.50 on January 29, 2026, due to misleading statements regarding its AI chatbot Copilot and Azure, significantly impacting investor confidence and market performance.
- Class Action Initiated: A class action lawsuit filed by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP accuses Microsoft and its executives of violating securities laws, with investors needing to apply by August 11, 2026, to lead the case, highlighting potential reputational risks for the company.
- Functionality Issues Exposed: The lawsuit alleges that despite claims of Copilot's best-in-class capabilities, severe functionality issues led to user attrition, jeopardizing Azure's revenue growth and reflecting challenges in the company's technological innovation.
- Market Reaction: The Wall Street Journal reported significant problems with Copilot, exacerbating investor concerns about Microsoft's future growth and potentially leading to a broader crisis of trust in the company’s long-term strategy.
- Investment Recommendation Omission: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team has identified that Apple is not included in the current list of top investment stocks, indicating a cautious market sentiment regarding its future growth potential, which may affect investor confidence.
- Historical Return Comparison: Compared to previously recommended stocks like Netflix and Nvidia, which achieved returns of 418,761% and 1,195,804% respectively after their recommendations, Apple's relative disadvantage in the current investment landscape may lead to capital outflows.
- Market Performance Discrepancy: With Stock Advisor's total average return at 918%, significantly surpassing the S&P 500's 208%, it suggests that investors may prefer other recommended stocks, potentially impacting Apple's market performance.
- Analyst Holdings Insight: Analyst Parkev Tatevosian holds shares in Microsoft, while The Motley Fool recommends both Apple and Microsoft, reflecting differing investment confidence in these companies, which may influence market perceptions of Apple.
- Job Cuts Announcement: Microsoft plans to cut 3,200 jobs in its Xbox division, with 1,600 layoffs this week and an additional 1,250 by the end of the fiscal year, representing about 20% of the division's workforce, indicating a significant restructuring in response to market pressures.
- Subscription Service Underperformance: The company's Game Pass subscription service is falling short of internal targets, projected to reach 77 million users this year but currently at only 30 million, highlighting the challenges Microsoft faces in the gaming market and the need for strategic adjustments.
- Poor Stock Performance: Microsoft shares have dropped 23% in the first half of 2026, marking its worst performance since 2000, reflecting investor concerns amid a broader selloff in software stocks and increasing competition in AI from rivals like Google and OpenAI.
- Retail Sentiment Shift: As of early Tuesday, retail sentiment for MSFT shifted from 'bullish' to 'neutral', indicating investor frustration over the company's underperformance and raising questions about its strategic decisions in the AI landscape.
- Competitive History: Microsoft and Apple have been in fierce competition for decades, continually challenging each other in operating systems and hardware, which has accelerated technological advancements.
- Market Performance: As of July 3, 2026, Microsoft's stock price stood at 0.94%, while Apple's was at 1.36%, indicating differing performances in the market between the two companies.
- Video Release: A related video was published on July 5, 2026, further exploring the dynamics of competition between the two companies and its impact on the industry.
- Industry Impact: The rivalry between Microsoft and Apple not only affects their respective market shares but also drives innovation and progress across the entire technology sector, serving as a significant catalyst for technological development.











