The market's optimism regarding the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled Microsoft Corp shares rise to a fresh record high closing, giving the technology giant a record market valuation of $2.59 trillion.

Due to its significant investment in OpenAI, the San Francisco-based firm that created the hugely successful chatbot ChatGPT, Microsoft is seen as a leader in the adoption of AI technology in the software sector.

In an effort to combat Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., Microsoft started releasing a number of AI enhancements, including ChatGPT, to its Bing search engine and Azure cloud services last month.

On Thursday, Microsoft's shares increased 3.2 percent to close at $348.10 a share.

The stock, which has increased by over 45 percent so far this year, hit its previous record close of $343.11 on November 19, 2021.

On November 22, 2021, the stock's intraday record high was $349.67.

Additionally, on Thursday, shares of Apple Inc. closed at a record high of $186.01, while those of the manufacturer of graphics chips Nvidia hit a brand-new intraday record of $432.89.

Jugalbandi, a multilingual chatbot driven by generative AI and available through the popular messaging app WhatsApp, was recently launched by Microsoft.

Microsoft and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani support Jugalbandi. Jugalbandi made use of the Azure OpenAI Service from Microsoft and the AI4Bharat language models.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was interested by this app while recently visiting India. It was developed by the government-sponsored AI4Bharat program employing reasoning models from Microsoft Azure OpenAI.

The AI chatbot has modified its model using information from databases managed by the Indian government, which is being uploaded one at a time.

The demand for Microsoft's goods is being driven by AI, according to JPMorgan analysts who increased their price target on the company's stock earlier on Thursday.

According to data from Refinitiv, 44 of the 53 analysts that follow Microsoft suggested purchasing the stock, with a consensus price objective of $340.