Microsoft is giving its channel partners a new way to pay for artificial intelligence. Starting December 1, new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses purchased by enterprise customers through partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program will default to usage-based billing, with a standard monthly allowance of 4,000 Copilot Credits per user. The shift, disclosed at the start of the month, marks the company’s latest attempt to align how it charges for AI with how customers actually consume it.
The billing change landed alongside a round of leadership reshuffling. Ryan Roslansky is set to depart, while Dan Shapero continues as CEO of LinkedIn. Microsoft also reassigned responsibilities across the teams overseeing Microsoft 365.
Wall Street Turns More Bullish
Analysts spent the early part of the week lifting their targets on the stock. Melius Research upgraded Microsoft from Hold to Buy on Monday and set a $665 price target, arguing that prevailing worries about the AI segment could ultimately work in the software giant’s favor. Scotiabank’s Patrick Colville made his own adjustment the same day, raising his target to $615 from $510 while keeping a Sector Outperform rating. Piper Sandler’s Billy Fitzsimmons had already weighed in on September 30, reaffirming Overweight and nudging his target to $610 from $550. Other Wall Street houses have been steadily marking up their forecasts in recent sessions.
That confidence rests on Microsoft’s entrenched position across key corners of information technology. Industry watchers routinely point to how methodically the company folds modern algorithms into its established enterprise software and sells those offerings through its own cloud. Management is backing the growth ambitions with heavy spending on global infrastructure to meet surging demand for compute from large customers. On September 23, the company said it would commit more than $10 billion in investment and operating expenses across the Middle East through 2030, directing funds into Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to expand data centers and AI capacity.
A Hardware Reveal in San Francisco
Microsoft’s hardware ambitions take center stage today. According to Reuters, CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang will jointly unveil the Surface Laptop Ultra at an event in San Francisco. The device runs on Nvidia processors and is designed to carry AI agents that perform computations directly on the machine. Microsoft announced the gathering in mid-September, with a scheduled start of 10:00 a.m. local time. Media reports suggest the agenda also covers Surface devices, Windows developments and technologies such as Nvidia RTX Spark, though the company has not confirmed detailed product specifications or concrete announcements ahead of the start.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Microsoft?
Trading was subdued before the event. The stock changed hands at EUR 470.00, a marginal decline of 0.06 percent, leaving it 1.7 percent below its 52-week high. In the prior session, the shares closed at EUR 470.30 in German trading, just 1.6 percent under a 52-week peak of EUR 478.10. On US exchanges, the stock had gained ground a day earlier amid a broad rebound in the technology sector, helped by falling bond yields, retreating oil prices and persistent optimism about AI-related business prospects, according to Reuters.
Gaming Shake-Up and a Broader Product Push
Beyond infrastructure and hardware, Microsoft is redrawing the map of its gaming division. Xbox announced organizational changes under which Bethesda will take over the studio Obsidian, while King expands to absorb Microsoft Casual Games. Playground Games and Turn 10 are merging into a single developer team for Forza and Fable, and consultations have begun over a possible closure of Ninja Theory.
On the device side, refreshed Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models are headed to market. Sales of the versions equipped with Snapdragon X2 Plus processors begin October 13, with battery efficiency improved by as much as 18 percent. Roughly two weeks ago, Microsoft also restructured its Copilot platform, adding the Home, Code and Autopilot segments. Enterprise customers and partners now have the Microsoft Ignite conference in their sights, set for November in San Francisco and online.
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