Microsoft Corporation ( MSFT ) shares are closed Monday up more than 1%. Shares are approaching all-time highs, driven by continued momentum in artificial intelligence, as well as cost-cutting measures.

What To Know: Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares closed Monday’s session at $458.87, less than $10 below the stock’s all-time high of $468.35 set in July 2024, according to Benzinga Pro.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) announced last week that it planned to cut 3% of its global workforce, or about 6,000 employees as part of organizational changes aimed at positioning the company for streamlined success.

As reported by Benzinga, among those impacted was director of AI, Gabriela de Queiroz, underscoring the widespread impact of automation, even on AI leadership. The cuts follow comments from CEO Satya Nadella that AI now handles up to 30% of Microsoft's ( MSFT ) coding tasks.

Separately, Microsoft ( MSFT ) continues to lean into its AI strategy, expanding access to large language models and bringing xAI’s Grok and other AI tools to Azure data centers, the company said at its Microsoft Build developer conference on Monday.

The Verge reported on Monday that the “surprise” move could be controversial given the company’s close ties to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

The report indicates that Nadella has been pushing internally for the company to host Grok, as the Microsoft ( MSFT ) CEO wants the company to be viewed as the main hosting provider for all popular AI models.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) reported results for its latest quarter at the end of April, beating analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines as cloud revenue jumped 20% year-over-year. The company said its Azure and other cloud services revenue climbed 33% year-over-year.

“Cloud and AI are the essential inputs for every business to expand output, reduce costs, and accelerate growth. From AI infra and platforms to apps, we are innovating across the stack to deliver for our customers,” Nadella said in the earnings release.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares jumped on the report and shares have continued to trend higher in recent weeks. The stock is now up nearly 28% over a one-month period. Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares closed Monday up 1.01% at $458.87, according to Benzinga Pro.

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