Microsoft's AI capex is now a power-purchase story as much as a GPU story

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft's latest capacity plan reads like an energy filing. Alongside GPU purchase commitments, the company is stacking power-purchase agreements and behind-the-meter deals that would have looked exotic on a software-company slide five years ago.

Azure customers already feel the result as region-level GPU scarcity. Product managers can ship a model. They cannot ship a region that does not have a substation date.

Investors who still treat Microsoft as a high-margin software residual are being asked to underwrite an industrial build. The stock can handle that if utilization arrives. It cannot handle stranded campuses.