Microsoft Earnings: Bulls’ AI Hopes Offset PC, Cloud Worries

For

Microsoft

these are the best of times and the worst of times. That’s the conundrum investors face with the software giant’s March-quarter-earnings report less than two weeks out.

Let’s start with the happy news. Thanks to the company’s strong relationship with the ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) has become the perceived early leader in generative artificial-intelligence software. The company has rolled out AI-enhanced versions of many of its most important software platforms, including not just the Bing search engine, but also Office, Dynamics (software for running businesses), and GitHub (software for writing code).