A banking giant has suggested that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock still has potential upside despite the ongoing drop in prices.
In this case, Goldman Sachs has reiterated its Buy rating on Microsoft and maintained a $600 price target, signaling continued confidence in the software giant’s long-term growth prospects despite competitive pressures in artificial intelligence.
The reaffirmed target represents a projected upside of roughly 55% from Microsoft’s press-time value of $389. Notably, MSFT has had a rough start to 2026, dropping over 15% year to date.
The outlook by the bank’s analyst, Gabriela Borges, follows Microsoft’s announcement of its Maia 200 AI inference accelerator, an in-house custom silicon designed to power artificial intelligence workloads.
According to Borges, the launch reflects meaningful progress in Microsoft’s internal chip development efforts, with early disclosures suggesting the Maia 200’s performance is becoming more comparable to competing solutions on raw compute metrics.
This advancement is viewed as a positive development for Microsoft’s AI compute price-to-performance positioning within Azure. Improved efficiency at the silicon level could support the company’s long-term objective of achieving AI compute gross margins closer to those of traditional CPU-based cloud workloads, strengthening the overall profitability outlook of its cloud segment.
However, execution risks remain, as large-scale production benchmark data for Maia 200 has yet to be fully demonstrated, and a broader rollout will depend on a successful manufacturing ramp-up.
In addition, expanding software ecosystem support, including developer tools and inference engines, will be critical to maximizing adoption. The competitive landscape is also evolving rapidly, with rival accelerator programs continuing to advance.
Wall Street bullish on MSFT stock
Notably, the rest of Wall Street remains bullish on MSFT’s share price, with analysts tracked by TipRanks assigning a ‘Strong Buy’ rating.
According to data compiled from 36 analysts, 33 rate the stock a buy, three recommend holding, and none suggest selling, underscoring broad confidence in the company’s outlook. The consensus 12-month price target stands at $594.02, implying a 52.88% upside.
Analysts’ projections show a high-end target of $678 and a low estimate of $392, reflecting a relatively wide range of expectations while maintaining an overall positive trajectory.
The average forecast suggests that Microsoft could reclaim and surpass its previous highs over the next year if growth momentum remains intact.
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