> See Android, Youtube, Instagram, Tesla

All of the examples grew by 100x after being bought. Which of the Microsoft's acquisition grew by even 10x? Which of them even achieved breakeven in term of money spent?

>How does it matter if a company buys or builds new projects?

How does it not matter? It's like convincing yourself that since you can order delivery food you're a chef. Being able to produce new ideas that appeal to people is the sought after skill Microsoft is literally paying for with money from their entrenched positions that are failing to make anything new and appealing. Buying things is a skill all companies have and Microsoft is not skilled for spending money to buy ideas they can't come up with

There is a difference between investing into a good idea to make it successful and investing into a good idea that is already successful

It is called "Opportunism"

"Look they are doing great things lately with AI", when they just pumped money into an already successful AI project

That's a short term vision, a sign of lack of capabilities in a specific domain, "let's buy our way in, nobody gonna notice"