SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has excelled this year, with its stock climbing over 20%. This notably exceeds the broader market performance, as the S&P 500 is up 7%, and competitors like Amazon have achieved just a 5% increase, while Google has gained less than 1%. This impressive growth is primarily attributed to strong cloud expansion—Azure revenue alone surged 33% in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025—and its ongoing advances in AI integration. Microsoft's solid posi ...