Microsoft notches record high valuation of nearly $2.6 trillion

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp shares rose to a new record high close on Thursday as market optimism about the prospects of artificial intelligence (AI) has helped buoy the technology giant to a record market capitalization of $2.59 trillion.

Microsoft is seen as a leader in the adoption of AI technology in the software industry owing to its huge investment in OpenAI, the San Francisco-based startup that owns the widely popular chatbot ChatGPT.

Last month, Microsoft began rolling out a host of AI upgrades, including ChatGPT, to Azure cloud services as well as its search engine Bing – in a move that seeks to challenge the dominance of Alphabet Inc’s Google.