According to Wedbush, the $3 trillion club won’t be alone for long. Last week, Apple became the first company to close a single trading day with a market value of $3 trillion. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to clients Wednesday that the artificial intelligence boom means Microsoft will soon follow suit. “With AI as the next step, we believe in the overall valuation at which MSFT will join Apple in the $3 trillion oligopolistic club by early 2024,” Ives said. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and will share any potential profits. Microsoft’s Azure cloud business is also a potential beneficiary as more companies adopt server-intensive AI approaches. Ives says the extra expense can be substantial, even for a company as large as Microsoft. “Over the past few weeks, in our many conversations with Microsoft customers, partners, and field tests, it’s become clear to us that the monetization opportunities around AI and ChatGPT deployment in the cloud It’s an industry-wide transformation opportunity with Redmond leading the way,” said Ives, referring to Microsoft’s headquarters. “We estimate for every $100 spent on cloud-based Azure with MSFT over the past few years, an additional $35-40 in AI spending is currently under consideration.” Microsoft’s stock price has received a boost from the AI boom, with the stock soaring about 41% year-to-date, bringing its market capitalization to around $2.5 trillion by the end of the year. Monday. Mount MSFT YTD Microsoft stock is up more than 40% year to date. Ives has an outperform rating on Microsoft, with a target price of $375, up 11% from Microsoft’s last close.