In its fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 earnings report, Microsoft disclosed the performance of its investments in two leading AI labs. The company did not update the valuation of its Anthropic stake quarterly, but the investment generated approximately $3.2 billion in gains during the quarter. Meanwhile, its OpenAI investment saw a write-down of approximately $600 million, dragging down earnings per share by about 7 cents.
Microsoft holds approximately 27% of OpenAI's equity and receives related payments through revenue sharing, but the company does not disclose the specific amount paid to OpenAI separately. Financial reports indicate that this write-down has a limited impact on Microsoft's overall performance. The company's revenue for the quarter reached $90 billion, with a net profit of $35.8 billion; full-year revenue was $331.8 billion, and net profit was $133.7 billion.
OpenAI investment still recorded returns for the whole year.
For the full year, Microsoft's investment in OpenAI still yielded approximately $5 billion in returns, contributing $0.67 to earnings per share. Microsoft's full-year earnings per share were $17.95.
Anthropic's single-season performance was more outstanding.
It's worth noting that Microsoft's quarterly revenue from Anthropic is almost equal to its annual revenue from OpenAI. TechCrunch points out that this is one of the reasons Microsoft chose to disclose this information, showing a clear divergence in the returns on its investment in the two competing AI companies.












