Microsoft's MSFT aggressive datacenter expansion strategy presents both promise and pressure for investors evaluating the tech giant's trajectory. The company's first-quarter fiscal 2026 results revealed capital expenditures reaching $34.9 billion, substantially exceeding prior guidance, as management committed to increasing AI capacity by 80% this fiscal year and nearly doubling its datacenter footprint over the next two years.
The scale of investment is unprecedented. Microsoft announced Fairwater, positioned as the world's most powerful AI datacenter in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, with a total commitment exceeding $7 billion. Set to go online in early 2026, the facility spans 315 acres and houses hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GB200 GPUs, delivering performance, Microsoft claims, that is ten times greater than current supercomputers. Multiple identical Fairwater facilities are under construction across the United States, signaling a coordinated national expansion.
Internationally, Microsoft revealed a $10 billion investment in Portugal's coastal city of Sines, partnering with Start Campus and Nscale to deploy 12,600 next-generation Nvidia GPUs. The project represents one of Microsoft's largest European investments and underscores the company's global infrastructure ambitions.
However, capacity constraints persist. Management guided that Azure will remain capacity-constrained through at least the end of fiscal 2026, even as demand continues outpacing supply. Commercial remaining performance obligations surged more than 50% to nearly $400 billion, indicating a robust demand backlog. The question for investors centers on whether these massive infrastructure investments will translate into proportional revenue growth and margin expansion, or whether the capital-intensive buildout will compress profitability amid intensifying competition in the AI infrastructure race.
Amazon and Google Join Infrastructure Arms Race
Amazon AMZN and Alphabet GOOGL-owned Google are pursuing parallel datacenter expansion strategies to compete in the AI infrastructure market. Amazon recently completed its $8 billion Project Rainier, comprising 30 interconnected datacenters in Indiana to support Anthropic's AI models, demonstrating Amazon's commitment to AI workload optimization. Amazon's AWS division continues expanding capacity to meet growing demand for cloud and AI services. Meanwhile, Google announced a multi-billion-dollar investment in West Memphis, AR, planning a datacenter campus exceeding 1,000 acres. Google also committed an additional €5 billion investment in Belgium over the next two years, expanding its Saint-Ghislain facility. Both Amazon and Google face similar challenges balancing massive capital expenditures against profitability expectations, mirroring the strategic calculus confronting Microsoft as hyperscalers race to dominate AI infrastructure.
MSFT’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
MSFT shares have appreciated 20.7% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Computer – Software industry and the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s growth of 14.4% and 27.5%, respectively.
MSFT’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, MSFT stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month Price/Sales ratio of 11.06X compared with the industry’s 7.98X. MSFT has a Value Score of D.
MSFT’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSFT’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $15.54 per share, up 0.7% over the past 30 days. The estimate indicates 19.2% year-over-year growth.
Microsoft Corporation Price and Consensus
Microsoft Corporation price-consensus-chart | Microsoft Corporation Quote
Microsoft currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
