Investors who purchased Microsoft stock in the 1980s or 1990s and held on have enjoyed exceptional returns.
Microsoft is expected to remain a strong beneficiary of the artificial intelligence megatrend.
Tech giant and "Magnificent Seven" member Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) needs no introduction. Many people interact with its products and services on a regular basis, whether that involves using its suite of business productivity programs to get work done, playing video games on its Xbox console, or making connections and networking on social media platform LinkedIn.
Investors who bought Microsoft around the time the company went public in 1986 have done remarkably well. In fact, if you'd invested just $300 in the company back then and held on firmly in the decades that followed, you'd have a position worth over $1.4 million now.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »
Image source: Getty Images.
Today, however, its $3.65 trillion market cap makes it one of the five largest companies in the world. One version of the financial world's "law of large numbers" explains that the larger a business grows, the more difficult it gets to sustain the percentage growth rates it was able to achieve when it was smaller. So from its current massive size, is it possible for Microsoft to be a multimillionaire-maker investment again?
The good news for Microsoft investors is that the company still has many large opportunities ahead. Its Azure cloud unit allows other businesses to essentially rent server space, data storage, and networking services on systems that Microsoft owns and operates. That way, its clients don't have to build their own infrastructure.
Azure is one of the three largest cloud infrastructure players in the world, and the traditional cloud space still has a lot of runway ahead because many businesses have yet to complete their digital transformations. However, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) presents a whole new massive opportunity for Microsoft, and the company is investing heavily to capitalize on it.
In Microsoft's most recent fiscal quarter, its Intelligent Cloud unit, which includes Azure, saw revenue grow 28% year over year. During the earnings call, management said that Azure is now capacity-constrained, meaning that it lacks sufficient data center capacity to meet the demand of clients, which will result in it missing out on some revenue.
As more companies look to develop and run AI applications, Microsoft is expected to be a large beneficiary. Furthermore, there could also be a massive opportunity to monetize AI tools through the Copilot AI Assistant.
Now, of course, it's possible that this massive AI infrastructure buildout may not yield the returns investors are hoping for. It's also possible that it will take significantly longer than expected for AI to have the impacts its proponents promise. The good news is that Microsoft has many other tremendous businesses. This is not a company that will live and die by the success of AI, although the progress of that particular trend could certainly result in volatility for the stock.
So, could Microsoft be a multimillionaire maker from here? It depends on how much one invests. The stock is extremely unlikely to compound over then next four decades like it has over the past four, but it still will likely be a great long-term investment.
Before you buy stock in Microsoft, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Microsoft wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $560,649!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,100,862!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 998% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 194% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of December 1, 2025
Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.