Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) has freed itself from its reliance on OpenAI, and Copilot is the "ace" that Wall Street is optimistic about as it aims towards a market value of 5 trillion.

Notice that Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) and OpenAI may still be deeply intertwined, but Wall Street believes that the real story is that the former has begun to dance alone in the thriving AI world. This may allow the 50-year-old tech giant - known for its Windows operating system, Azure cloud services, and recently launched Copilot chat Siasun Robot&Automation - to add trillions of dollars to its market value in the next decade and gain a competitive advantage. "As the artificial intelligence revolution enters the next phase of growth, Microsoft Corporation's market value is expected to reach $5 trillion in 2026," Wedbush technology analyst Dan Ives said. Microsoft Corporation's current market value is $3.59 trillion. Although Microsoft Corporation's train to $5 trillion is steadily progressing, its most crucial passenger remains OpenAI. "We see ... the entire ecosystem really starting to converge on us, helping us create this future," said OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar. She added that to meet high computational demands - what she called the "cornerstone" driving the next AI era, the company is likely to continue to collaborate with third-party companies - hinting at Microsoft Corporation. "I'm excited about the investments Microsoft Corporation is making," co-founder Bill Gates told the media, noting that while AI is growing "rapidly," there is still "huge uncertainty" there. Gates expects this emerging technology to become "extremely powerful" in the next three to five years, adding that in the AI arms race, Microsoft Corporation is clearly a "competitor." The Beginning Relationship between Microsoft Corporation and OpenAI This deep relationship began in 2019 when Microsoft Corporation made a $1 billion initial investment in OpenAI led by Sam Altman - a gamble on the next generation of artificial intelligence that could fundamentally change the future of computing and cloud services. This investment allowed Microsoft Corporation priority access to cutting-edge AI models, a key advantage over competitors in the tech giant space. In return, OpenAI received the computational power, infrastructure, and distribution channels needed to train and deploy AI tools, as well as long-term funding and stability. For Microsoft Corporation, this deal was never just a financial investment - it was a gamble that AI would become the next major platform shift, a transformation that could redefine industries, much like Windows once did for personal computing. Since then, Microsoft Corporation has invested around $13 billion in OpenAI - a figure recently confirmed by CEO Nadella. Since that initial investment, Microsoft Corporation has been closely linked to OpenAI. OpenAI's Friar noted that the company is "largely funded by Microsoft Corporation." Even though OpenAI is now valued at $500 billion and Microsoft Corporation holds approximately 27% of its shares following the revised partnership in late October, experts believe that Microsoft Corporation's future is not defined by its stake in what Altman calls "the largest non-profit organization in history." This stake may have bought Microsoft Corporation a ticket to the AI feast - but the company's true strategy is to have a stage where all the other tech giants dance on it. Microsoft Corporation Beyond OpenAI Microsoft Corporation's AI advantage lies in how it integrates AI technology into every layer of its tech - from Azure and Office, to developer tools, enterprise software, and consumer products like Bing and Edge. This deep integration is most evident in Copilot, Microsoft Corporation's generative AI assistant, used in Microsoft 365 productivity applications, Windows operating systems, and workflow like GitHub Copilot. Logan Brown, founder of software development platform Sexton.AI, notes that Microsoft Corporation's ability to integrate AI tools like Copilot into its entire suite of products puts it in a unique position in the AI field. "Microsoft Corporation has such dominance in its suite of products that they will be able to integrate and in that sense become a 'Copilot,'" she points out, "Most people are renting Microsoft Corporation infrastructure." A Microsoft Corporation spokesperson stated that as the company aims to slice a big chunk of the AI market, it is focusing on seven key trends for 2026, including enhancing human capabilities, providing better safeguards for intelligent entities, and closing health gaps. The pace of AI innovation within Microsoft Corporation and its massive scale is crucial to investors, who increasingly believe that Microsoft Corporation's reliance on OpenAI is decreasing rather than increasing, even though their partnership remains important financially and technically. "From a business strategy perspective, it feels like Microsoft Corporation is continuing to rely on a very, very important partner but also dev...