Microsoft ‘clear early leader’ in generative AI, says JPMorgan

JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy says generative artificial intelligence is likely to be one of the "defining technological developments of our generation" and that Microsoft is a "clear early leader" with potential to achieve "escape velocity." The firm senses investors are in the early stages of sorting software companies into a "list of survivors and questionables as understanding of the disruptive wave begins to grow." It believes Microsoft, Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, and HubSpot are examples of companies moving rapidly to capitalize on generative AI with a modern, cloud-based architecture and proprietary datasets to leverage. JPMorgan has an Overweight rating on Microsoft with a $305 price target.