Microsoft shares dropped in Europe on Thursday after the company gave a disappointing forecast for its cloud business. Meanwhile, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, saw its shares rise after it exceeded expectations. Investors were closely watching how both companies were spending on artificial intelligence.
In Frankfurt, Microsoft’s stock fell by 4.5%, continuing a similar drop in after-hours trading from the previous day. It ended the regular trading session down by 1.1%. On the other hand, Meta’s shares went up by 2.5% in Germany after rising 2.1% after hours and finishing the regular session with a 0.3% increase.
This comes just days after a Chinese company, DeepSeek, announced a breakthrough in affordable AI computing, which caused a stir in the U.S. tech industry. Both Microsoft and Meta’s CEOs defended their significant spending on AI, emphasizing its importance for staying competitive.
