I've been watching Microsoft get absolutely hammered lately and honestly, it might be one of the best stocks to buy now if you've got the stomach for it.

Here's what's going on. The stock is down over 20% from its highs, which is the worst we've seen in years. Everyone's freaking out about OpenAI - you know, the company that Microsoft has a pretty significant stake in and basically partners with on everything AI-related. The problem is OpenAI's bleeding money like crazy. They're burning through billions just to stay operational, which means they need to keep raising capital constantly. And it's not like they're alone in this space anymore - Anthropic and Google are chipping away at their market dominance.

The thing that really spooked investors though? OpenAI accounts for roughly 45% of Microsoft's Azure cloud business backlog. So if OpenAI stumbles, Microsoft's entire cloud operation could take a serious hit. That's a legitimate concern.

But here's where I think people are overreacting. OpenAI isn't throwing in the towel. They're actually in talks to raise $100 billion to fund their roadmap. ChatGPT is still the dominant AI app out there, and they're rolling out new enterprise products like Frontier that let companies build and deploy AI agents autonomously. Yeah, there's risk here, but it's way too early to panic.

Meanwhile, if you look at what Microsoft actually delivered last quarter, it's pretty solid. Cloud grew 26% year-over-year to $51.5 billion - that's massive for a company this size. The commercial backlog jumped 110% to $625 billion, which shows how much business OpenAI is driving their way. And here's the kicker - the stock is now trading at just 25 times earnings, which is the lowest valuation since late 2022, before all this AI stuff really took off.

Analysts are projecting Microsoft will grow earnings 14-15% annually over the next few years. If they hit those numbers, the stock should perform well from these levels. The market's just being irrationally pessimistic right now.

Look, Microsoft has built an empire of entrenched products and services that aren't going anywhere. Once investors feel better about OpenAI's situation - and I think they will - this stock is probably going to bounce back hard. That's why I'm thinking the best stocks to buy now might actually include companies like Microsoft that have been unfairly beaten down. The pullback looks like a solid entry point before sentiment shifts.