Microsoft slips even as Wedbush says ChatGPT adds 'another growth leg'
Leon Neal
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares slipped in pre-market trading on Thursday even as Wedbush Securities said the introduction of ChatGPT into its products has added "another growth leg" to the company, as it starts on its journey of monetizing artificial intelligence.
Analyst Dan Ives, who has an outperform rating on Microsoft (MSFT), noted that in recent weeks, conversations with the tech giant's customers and partners and recent field checks have made it "crystal clear" that monetizing AI and ChatGPT in the cloud is a "transformation opportunity" across the industry. 
Microsoft (MSFT) has integrated ChatGPT technology via its deal with OpenAI into a number of products already, including its Power Platform developer suite, Azure cloud, desktop users of its Bing search engine, its mobile Bing and Edge apps and several others.
This integration is "just starting to hit its next gear of growth" and could be worth as much as $25 to $30 per share once Microsoft (MSFT) really starts to monetize it, Ives, who also boosted his per-share price target to $340 from $325, explained. 
"We believe that Microsoft is in a unique position to gain share in the cloud market while deploying additional AI capabilities that we estimate could expand Redmond's total addressable market around cloud by 35%-40% over the coming years," Ives wrote in an investor note.
The analyst also pointed out that Microsoft (MSFT) is rolling out beta programs for Azure and AI, but there is an $800B opportunity over the next decade in the cloud space, one that will benefit companies like Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Oracle (ORCL), IBM (IBM), Salesforce (CRM) and others.
In the battle of hyperscalers, Ives also suggested that Microsoft (MSFT) is likely to gain market share compared to Amazon (AMZN) Web Services over the next 12 to 18 months.
"We believe 90%+ of Azure/Office 365 large deal activity is still on track through our MSFT partner checks for the June quarter so far with modest push-outs and downsizing of major cloud projects seen in the field containable thus far," Ives added. 
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