Microsoft logs $3.2B from Anthropic investment, but OpenAI was a mixed bag

微软财报透露了一个有趣的对比：它对AI初创公司Anthropic的投资一个季度就赚了32亿美元，而对另一家AI巨头OpenAI的投资却赔了6亿美元。这笔收益让微软每股收益多了33美分，而OpenAI带来的亏损则让每股收益少了7美分。要知道，微软总共投了50亿美元给Anthropic，还附加了后者购买300亿美元Azure云服务的协议；而它持有OpenAI约27%的股份，虽然全年来看这笔投资还是赚了50亿美元，但单季度表现确实不如Anthropic亮眼。通俗点说，就像你同时买了两只科技股，一只短期暴涨，另一只却跌了，但整体你还是赚钱的。微软这次财报总收入900亿美元，净利润358亿美元，所以这点波动对它来说只是九牛一毛。对于普通人来说，这件事的直接意义不大，但它反映了AI行业的两大阵营——OpenAI和Anthropic——正在激烈竞争。微软两边都押注，这种“骑墙”策略既分散了风险，也说明未来AI服务可能会更便宜、更易用，因为竞争会促使它们不断优化产品。你日常用的AI助手、云服务，背后可能都有这些公司的技术，微软的盈利增长也意味着他们有更多资金投入研发，最终受益的还是用户。

When Microsoft reported killer fourth-quarter earnings for its fiscal 2026 year (which ended June 30), it tucked in an interesting little tidbit about how its investments in the two biggest, and competing, AI labs are doing. For the quarter, it recorded its investment in Anthropic as a $3.2 billion gain, boosting diluted earnings per share by 33 cents. (Microsoft reported diluted earnings per share of $4.81 for the quarter). Microsoft invested $5 billion in Anthropic in November 2025 as part of a circular agreement under which the AI lab also agreed to buy $30 billion worth of Azure services. Microsoft does not routinely update the value of its Anthropic investment each quarter. It does, however, discuss its OpenAI investment quarterly. Microsoft said investment did not fare nearly as well in the quarter, and marked it down about $600 million, reducing diluted EPS by about 7 cents per share. Microsoft owns about 27% of OpenAI. And while Microsoft also receives revenue-share payments, it doesn’t report how much OpenAI pays under that arrangement. Instead, Microsoft accounts for the value of its investment. While this quarter brought a pretty sizable decline in the value of that investment, the $600 million write-down was still mostly a rounding error for Microsoft. The company delivered a highly profitable quarter, reporting $90 billion of revenue and net income of $35.8 billion for the quarter. Microsoft’s revenue was $331.8 billion with a net income of $133.7 billion for the year. Microsoft’s OpenAI investment looks much better when viewed on a full-year basis. For the year, Microsoft’s OpenAI investment generated a $5 billion gain and added $0.67 on EPS, respectively, the company reported. (Microsoft reported $17.95 EPS for its fiscal year.) Still, it is noteworthy that Microsoft reported nearly as much of a gain on Anthropic in one quarter as it did for the year on OpenAI. In fact, it is so noteworthy that Microsoft disclosed it. var playerInstance_jwplayer_6a6aabc313bdc = jwplayer( "jwplayer_6a6aabc313bdc" ); playerInstance_jwplayer_6a6aabc313bdc.setup({ playlist: "https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4CEANrFT", });