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Market news reports that Microsoft (MSFT.O) plans to raise at least $25 billion through the issuance of U.S. bonds.

Yorkville Ives analysts pointed out that Microsoft's financial report shows its cloud computing capacity is sufficient to meet the enormous market demand. Microsoft Azure's revenue exceeded Wall Street expectations, becoming a key factor in stock performance.Before the financial report, the market had already seen AI-driven demand, but there were doubts about the speed of capacity release. Microsoft's promised future expenditure scale is $677 billion, with confirmed revenue expected to increase in the next 12 months. On Thursday before the market opened, Microsoft's stock price rose 2.7% against the trend.

On October 29, Financial News Overseas cited a Reuters report that Amazon cut about 250 positions in its devices and services division. An informed source stated that the affected positions were mainly software development roles.The report mentioned that in the previous weeks, Amazon launched several new products, including a new Kindle e-reader and tablets.

Microsoft expects its Azure cloud business revenue to grow by 49% to 50% in the second fiscal quarter, with total revenue reaching between 96 billion and 97.1 billion dollars.Revenue from the Intelligent Cloud and Infrastructure segment is expected to be between 80.1 billion and 80.7 billion dollars, while revenue from the Devices and Consumer segment is projected to be between 15.9 billion and 16.4 billion dollars. Microsoft also anticipates that capital expenditures in the second fiscal quarter will exceed 50 billion dollars.

According to Gate market data, Microsoft (MSFT.O) rose by 6% in after-hours trading.

Microsoft announced that its quarterly cloud business revenue exceeded expectations, with Azure cloud computing revenue growing by 48% to reach $33.17 billion, surpassing the market expectation of $32.84 billion. The company's free cash flow was $18.6 billion, far exceeding the market expectation of $8.54 billion. Microsoft’s stock rose nearly 6% in after-hours trading.

Microsoft (MSFT.O) reported that for the three months ended September 30, revenue from its commercial arrangement with OpenAI was $10 billion.

Google and Microsoft will announce their financial reports after the U.S. stock market closes.

Former Microsoft executive Peter Sellis announced that he has joined Elon Musk's social platform X, responsible for product operations. He stated that he will promote improvements in X's product experience, as well as the growth of global users and business operations, and mentioned the goal of bringing online posting into the "interplanetary era."Peter Sellis previously led design, engineering, and growth in Microsoft's AI department and served as Senior Vice President of Product at Discord and Vice President of Product at Snap. X's former product head and Solana advisor Nikita Bier previously worked in Sellis's team at Discord.

According to a report by Financial Associated Press, Microsoft announced on October 26 local time that it will offer a voluntary severance compensation plan to approximately 60,000 employees to reduce costs and adjust its workforce for the AI era. More than a quarter of the total employee count is eligible, marking the company's third round of workforce adjustments this year.A spokesperson stated that some vice presidents and below in the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom are eligible to apply, and those who accept the plan will receive benefits similar to standard severance packages. According to informed sources, departments such as Xbox, Windows, Copilot, and finance will fully participate, while some employees in data centers, sales, marketing, cybersecurity, and quantum computing will not be eligible. Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Coleman mentioned in an internal letter that the plan provides an option for employees considering leaving to transition with the company's support, and it is another way for departments to adjust their teams. The spokesperson also noted that if top talent accepts the plan, the company will attempt to retain them in some cases.In April this year, Microsoft launched its first voluntary retirement program for about 8,750 eligible U.S. employees, with over 30% ultimately accepting; in July, it announced layoffs of approximately 4,800 people, accounting for about 2.1% of the total workforce. The spokesperson expects the number of acceptances this time to be far less than the voluntary retirement program. As of the end of June, Microsoft had a total of 223,000 employees. According to the financial report on July 29, capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 were $41 billion, a year-on-year increase of about 70%, and capital expenditures for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 are expected to be about $50 billion.

According to Zhitong Finance, JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee maintains a "Buy" rating on Microsoft with a target price of $625. The research report states that investors will closely monitor the business growth of Azure, the commercial version of Microsoft 365 Cloud, and Copilot.Chatterjee indicated that compared to the quarterly earnings report itself, the stock price reaction may be more determined by performance outlook, as investors hope to see sustainable signals of growth in cloud business and artificial intelligence.Yorkville Ives analyst Dan Ives maintained a "Outperform" rating on Microsoft with a target price of $615 on Friday, and listed Microsoft as one of his "Top 5 Tech Picks Before 2027." Ives stated that the concentrated earnings reports from large cloud providers like Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon are expected to soothe the highly volatile market.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review reported on October 26, SoftBank Group is discussing a $50 billion investment plan aimed at Malaysia, focusing on artificial intelligence and data centers. The report is by Yusuke Yagi from Tokyo.Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar stated that he had a video call with SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son to discuss the aforementioned plan. The report indicates that after promoting related investments in the United States and Europe, SoftBank is seeking to expand its AI infrastructure layout in Asia.

According to Sveriges Radio, the Swedish government office announced that starting from October 26 (Monday), ChatGPT and Claude will be banned on employee computers, with Microsoft Copilot approved as the only AI tool that has passed security review, and civil servants are required to switch to using Copilot.Mikael Wettercrantz, the agency's Director of Digitalization, stated in a post on the employee intranet that using AI services without a formal contract could "have consequences for our information security." He noted that multiple cases of improper use of open AI services have been identified, involving the sensitivity of the information inputted and the handling of AI-generated content. Due to the lack of formal agreements, consumer-grade AI tools send user queries to external company servers, and U.S. law allows authorities to request these companies to hand over data as required.Copilot is allowed to remain because the government office enhanced its security settings after review, while ChatGPT and Claude did not receive the same treatment. Some employees can still access these two banned tools through the AI platform built internally by the agency. Previously, the Swedish Tax Agency and the National Board of Health and Welfare had implemented similar bans, and the enforcement agency is also about to make a decision; an internal audit by the Transport Agency found about 10 AI services being "widely and at high risk" used.

According to Microsoft's 10-K filing for fiscal year 2026, as of June 30, 2026, the company had approximately 223,000 full-time employees, down from 228,000 the previous year, a decrease of about 5,000, marking the first decline in ten years.Among them, there are 121,000 employees in the United States and 102,000 employees overseas; approximately 77,000 employees are in research and development, a decrease of about 4,000 from the peak in 2024. During the same period, Microsoft's revenue for fiscal year 2026 increased by 18% year-on-year, reaching $331.8 billion.The above employee statistics do not include the new round of approximately 4,800 job cuts in July 2026. Microsoft previously stated that the eliminated positions would not be directly replaced by AI.

According to The Block, Standard Chartered has signed a final agreement to acquire 100% of the equity of the cryptocurrency custody institution Zodia Custody, with the transaction pending regulatory approval.Under the arrangement, Zodia Custody's custody business will be integrated into Standard Chartered, while its software business will be transferred to an independent company supported by Standard Chartered's venture capital division, SC Ventures.

Market sources say that SoftBank and MGX are in talks to participate in this round of financing for OpenAI.

According to a report by the Financial Associated Press, Microsoft has withdrawn from a large artificial intelligence data center project developed by the UK data center company Nscale in Essex, with reports indicating that the withdrawal is related to concerns over power supply. Officials from the UK National Grid had informed Nscale that the power supply for the data center is not expected to be in place until the 2030s. Nscale is exploring whether it can generate power on-site and whether it can expedite the grid connection process.The project was previously referred to by the UK government as the largest data center in the UK, originally scheduled to open next year. As of the report, the site still appears to be just a scaffolding yard. Microsoft had originally planned to fund the construction of a supercomputer, but the collaboration has now been terminated. Following the termination of the related computing power transaction, Nscale lost its only publicly announced client for the data center in Essex. Nscale stated that its relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-lasting, and the two parties will continue to collaborate on other overseas projects, with Microsoft still participating in another project in Norway.The Starmer government highlighted this project when announcing the UK's 2025 artificial intelligence strategy, calling it the largest autonomous artificial intelligence data center in the UK. Nscale has received support from several tech companies, including Nvidia, and plans to go public in the US this year, with a valuation potentially reaching $35 billion.

Analyst Killa posted on platform X, stating that Bitcoin has risen for the past three weekends, followed by a reversal on Monday. When there is greater downward pressure over the weekend, the market typically shows an opposite trend; if Bitcoin rises to a weekly closing, Monday is worth close attention. If it starts to decline over the weekend, a similar situation occurred last time when Bitcoin subsequently rose.

According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, SoftBank is considering acquiring Allied Universal, the largest security services company in the United States, with a potential equity valuation of up to $18 billion. The company also has about $12 billion in publicly traded loans and bonds, and including related debts, the total transaction value could approach $30 billion.Masayoshi Son is exploring the application of AI robots across various industries. The report indicates that SoftBank hopes to have robots undertake some security tasks for Allied in the future, but the deployment of humanoid security robots may take longer. Relevant discussions are still in the early stages, and matters including pricing have not been finalized.