BlackRock’s 30 Most Important AI Stocks Right Now

13. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Weight in ARTY ETF: 2.43%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 282

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of BlackRock’s 30 most important AI stocks right now.

BlackRock is the largest institutional holder, with 7.99% or 593.33 million outstanding shares in the company, as per the filings on March 31.

As of the close of July 2, the consensus sentiment around Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) was also strongly bullish. It received coverage from 36 analysts, 35 of whom assigned Buy ratings. With 1 Hold rating and no Sell call, the stock has a median 1-year price target of $562.10, resulting in an upside potential of over 40%.

On July 2, Aaron Holmes and Erin Woo from The Information reported that the company recently revealed its plans to convert its existing Copilot AI chatbots into a unified application. This will be done by combining the enterprise and consumer versions of the Copilot. This move will enable the company to remain competitive against major rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.

One of Microsoft’s Executive VPs, Jacob Andreou, expressed his appreciation for the Copilot’s growth during the recent quarter. Speaking on the latest announcement, he mentioned that the unified version will offer additional features such as new AI agents and coding tools.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a technology leader that delivers software, cloud computing, and PC solutions. Some of its offerings include Microsoft 365 commercial, enterprise mobility, Power BI, Microsoft Teams, and security and compliance solutions. The company’s Intelligent Cloud segment includes its public cloud platform, Azure, that delivers server products and enterprise mobility services.