Microsoft (MSFT) stock took a slight dip on Wednesday morning after the tech giant lowered its AI software sales quota. Per a report from The Information, Multiple divisions at Microsoft have lowered sales growth targets for certain artificial intelligence products after many sales staff missed goals in the fiscal year that ended in June 2025. This is a rare miss for a company as large and successful as Microsoft, so investors were fairly justified in their concern, sending shares down.
The Information reports that the sales lag occurred for Microsoft’s Foundry product, an Azure enterprise platform where companies can build and manage AI agents, citing two salespeople in Azure’s cloud unit. Less than a fifth of salespeople in one U.S. Azure unit met the Foundry sales growth target of 50%, the report added.
In a statement, Microsoft did say the news outlet inaccurately combined the concepts of growth and quotas. “Aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered, as we informed them prior to publication,” a Microsoft Spokesperson said. However, it’s unclear if this was just fluff in order to deflate the growing concerns around MSFT stock’s dip.
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Microsoft is one of the biggest players in the surging AI race, thanks in part to its early boosting of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Thus, lower sales growth goals for its AI products are likely to increase fears about real-world adoption of AI technology, with AI bubble worries still looming. Furthermore, Microsoft’s record capital expenditure of nearly $35 billion for its fiscal first quarter in October, and increased spending may peak AI bubble concerns as well.
At press time, Microsoft MSFT is trading in the middle of its 52-week range and above its 200-day simple moving average. Bulls still dominantly hold the reins of Microsoft stock forecasts. Out of 62 analysts surveyed by CNN, none call the stock a sell. 98% call MSFT a buy, while the remaining 2% opt to label the stock a hold. Furthermore, several Wall Street analysts, including Bernstein, Evercore ISI Group, and Raymond James, have issued Outperform ratings. The price targets range from $600 to $650, suggesting confidence in further stock appreciation