Microsoft’s fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter results showed a sharp contrast inside its artificial intelligence portfolio. The company reported a large gain from Anthropic, while its OpenAI investment moved lower in the same quarter.
The split matters because Microsoft is financially tied to two of the biggest competing AI labs. The quarter did not change the overall scale of Microsoft’s business, but it did show how differently those AI investments can appear in the company’s earnings.
Anthropic delivered a major quarterly gain
For the quarter, Microsoft recorded its investment in Anthropic as a $3.2 billion gain. That gain increased diluted earnings per share by 33 cents.
Microsoft reported diluted earnings per share of $4.81 for the quarter, so the Anthropic gain was visible inside the earnings picture. It was not just a small note in the background; it was large enough for Microsoft to disclose separately.
The investment followed a deal from November 2025, when Microsoft invested $5 billion in Anthropic. As part of that circular agreement, Anthropic also agreed to buy $30 billion worth of Azure services.
That arrangement links Microsoft’s AI investment strategy with its cloud business. Based on the source, the key point is simple: Microsoft’s Anthropic position produced a large quarterly gain, and the relationship also included a major Azure services commitment from Anthropic.
OpenAI moved lower in the quarter
The OpenAI investment looked different over the same period. Microsoft marked it down about $600 million for the quarter, reducing diluted EPS by about 7 cents per share.
Microsoft owns about 27% of OpenAI. The company also receives revenue-share payments, but it does not report how much OpenAI pays through that arrangement. Instead, Microsoft discusses the value of its OpenAI investment each quarter.
That makes the OpenAI figure important, but also limited. The reported decline reflects how Microsoft accounted for the investment value in the quarter, not a full public breakdown of all money moving between the two companies.
The $600 million write-down was still small relative to Microsoft’s overall results. The company reported $90 billion of revenue and net income of $35.8 billion for the quarter.
The full-year view changes the picture
Looking only at the fourth quarter could make OpenAI appear weak beside Anthropic. The full fiscal year gives a more balanced view.
For the year, Microsoft’s OpenAI investment generated a $5 billion gain and added $0.67 on EPS. Microsoft reported $17.95 EPS for its fiscal year.
That means OpenAI was a positive contributor over the year even though the latest quarter included a write-down. The contrast is between a quarterly decline and a full-year gain, not between one investment that worked and another that failed.
Microsoft’s fiscal 2026 year ended June 30. For that year, the company reported revenue of $331.8 billion and net income of $133.7 billion.
Why the comparison stood out
The notable detail is how close the Anthropic quarterly gain came to OpenAI’s full-year gain. Microsoft recorded nearly as much gain from Anthropic in one quarter as it did from OpenAI across the entire year.
That does not mean the two investments are identical. The source states that Microsoft does not routinely update the value of its Anthropic investment each quarter, while it does discuss OpenAI quarterly. That difference makes direct quarter-to-quarter comparisons more complicated.
Still, the disclosure shows how much AI investments can affect reported earnings, even for a company as large as Microsoft. A single investment gain added 33 cents to diluted EPS in the quarter, while a separate AI investment reduced diluted EPS by about 7 cents.
For readers tracking Microsoft AI investment strategy, the takeaway is not that one lab permanently outperformed the other. It is that Microsoft’s exposure to Anthropic and OpenAI can show up in earnings in different ways, across different time frames, and with very different quarterly effects.
What investors can reasonably take from it
The source does not provide forecasts, so the practical reading should stay narrow. Microsoft had a highly profitable quarter, and its AI investment accounting added a striking subplot to those results.
Several facts define that subplot:
- Microsoft recorded a $3.2 billion gain from Anthropic in the quarter.
- The Anthropic gain boosted diluted EPS by 33 cents.
- Microsoft marked down its OpenAI investment about $600 million in the quarter.
- The OpenAI write-down reduced diluted EPS by about 7 cents per share.
- For the full year, OpenAI still generated a $5 billion gain for Microsoft.
Those figures point to a broader earnings reality: AI partnerships are not only product or cloud stories for Microsoft. They are also investment positions that can move reported results, sometimes meaningfully, even when the company’s core financial scale remains much larger.