Visa, Microsoft and Broadcom deepen AI, crypto bets

Visa extends stablecoin settlement and embedded payments

Visa is pushing further into blockchain-based payments by expanding its stablecoin settlement program to more than 50 countries. The move widens access for banks, fintechs and merchants that want to settle transactions using dollar-pegged digital assets while still operating over Visa’s global network. Alongside this, the company is launching new advisory services around digital currencies aimed at financial institutions and merchants that are evaluating Web3 and tokenized payment flows.

Visa is also partnering with payments firm Mercuryo to enable near real-time crypto-to-fiat conversion via Visa Direct, and with Amenify to support card-linked resident commerce and rewards across tens of millions of U.S. rental properties. These initiatives are intended to keep Visa’s credentials and Visa Direct at the center of emerging payment use cases, whether a transaction begins in a stablecoin wallet, a rental portal or a local commerce app.

Financially, Visa shares trade around $321.83, with returns of 43.0% over three years and 59.8% over five years, but a 5.2% decline over the past year and a 7.1% decline year to date. Recent net revenue growth of 15% and quarterly net income of $5.85 billion frame the company’s push to reinforce its moat through value-added services, cross-border solutions and new payment flows such as stablecoins and embedded commerce.

Microsoft’s Perplexity deal tests Azure’s AI growth narrative

Microsoft has agreed a three-year, $750 million multi‑cloud AI infrastructure deal with Perplexity that designates Azure as a core platform for hosting advanced models from partners including OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. Perplexity will continue to use Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud, while layering Azure in as an AI model hub, positioning Microsoft alongside rivals within a multi‑cloud architecture rather than as an exclusive provider.

The agreement comes as investors scrutinize Microsoft’s AI capital spending and exposure to large, unprofitable customers such as OpenAI. After its latest earnings release, Microsoft’s stock fell more than 7% in a week, with remaining performance obligations reaching $625 billion, about 45% of which are tied to OpenAI’s expansion plans. Reports that OpenAI’s losses could reach $14 billion in 2026 have raised questions about whether Microsoft will realize all of its expected future revenue.

Despite short-term pressure, Microsoft shares remain up 4.4% over the past year, 70.5% over three years and 85.2% over five years. The Perplexity contract adds a tangible AI workload to Azure at a moment when the market is seeking evidence that elevated data-center investment is converting into multi‑year usage commitments.

Broadcom gains ground as an AI infrastructure supplier

Broadcom is drawing increasing Wall Street attention as an infrastructure supplier to AI data centers. Its networking and Ethernet switching chips address a bottleneck that arises as AI workloads move beyond simple chatbot applications to more complex, distributed systems. Broadcom’s position is between compute and storage, helping GPUs, servers and storage systems move large data sets with low latency inside modern data centers.

Beyond standard networking, Broadcom designs custom application‑specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for major technology customers such as Meta Platforms, Apple, ByteDance and Alphabet. As hyperscale cloud providers shift parts of their AI stacks to in‑house chips to optimize cost and control, Broadcom’s custom silicon capabilities offer it a path to capture incremental share from general‑purpose GPU suppliers.

Analysts cited by Intellectia AI forecast continued upside for Broadcom, with an average 12‑month price target of $462.58 and recent upgrades highlighting its competitiveness in tensor processing units and potential for AI revenue to double in 2027. The company is being viewed as increasingly embedded in multi‑year hyperscale infrastructure roadmaps, effectively collecting a “royalty” on AI data‑center build‑outs regardless of which compute architecture dominates.

AI and crypto moves unfold amid broader market cross‑currents

The latest announcements from Visa, Microsoft and Broadcom are taking shape against a backdrop of elevated but uneven risk appetite. A recent global risk review from Marketaux noted that U.S. equities retained modest January gains, while internal stress indicators deteriorated, small‑caps lagged and volatility rose into month‑end. Asia led global performance, with South Korea up about 23% in January and Taiwan also benefiting from strong AI‑related semiconductor demand.

At the same time, cryptocurrencies experienced a sharp weekend drawdown, with Bitcoin falling nearly 10% amid aggressive deleveraging. Historically, such moves have spilled over into high‑beta and speculative equity segments. Within this environment, companies tied to AI infrastructure and digital payments are expanding aggressively, but investors are becoming more sensitive to capital‑intensive strategies, customer concentration and the durability of new technology‑driven revenue streams.