Microsoft has begun deploying its home‑grown Maia 200 AI inference chip in its data centers while confirming it will continue purchasing GPUs from Nvidia and AMD. CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the company’s ongoing partnerships and the need to stay ahead in AI hardware. The Maia 200, designed for high‑performance AI model inference, will first be used by Microsoft’s Superintelligence team as they develop frontier models, and will also support OpenAI models on Azure. The move reflects a hybrid strategy of building in‑house chips while leveraging external suppliers. Read more →

Microsoft reported strong quarterly results, posting $81.3 billion in revenue and $38.3 billion in net income while highlighting record cloud revenue of over $50 billion. CEO Satya Nadella emphasized that the company’s massive capital expenditures—$88.2 billion last year and $72.4 billion so far this year—are aimed at expanding AI services across Azure, Microsoft 365, and partner labs. He pointed to rapid growth in Copilot products, noting a near‑three‑fold increase in daily consumer users, 4.7 million paid GitHub Copilot subscribers, and 15 million paid seats for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Nadella insisted the AI demand far exceeds data‑center capacity, underscoring confidence that the spending will translate into broader adoption and future profit. Read more →

Microsoft reported a $7.6 billion increase in net income tied to its partnership with OpenAI, reflecting the AI lab’s rapid revenue growth and a 20% revenue‑share agreement. The relationship also includes a $250 billion Azure services commitment from OpenAI, which now counts for roughly half of Microsoft’s commercial performance obligations. Additional AI investments, such as a $5 billion stake in Anthropic, and $37.5 billion in capital spending for GPUs and CPUs, underscore Microsoft’s aggressive push to dominate the cloud‑based AI market. Read more →

Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic that will make the startup’s Claude AI models available through Microsoft Foundry on Azure. As part of the deal, Anthropic will purchase a large amount of Azure compute capacity and may contract additional capacity up to one gigawatt. Nvidia is also joining the partnership to optimize the models for its future hardware, while both companies commit significant investments. The agreement follows recent changes to Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI and signals a broader push to integrate diverse generative‑AI technologies across Microsoft’s cloud and productivity services. Read more →

Microsoft and NVIDIA have announced a joint investment of up to $15 billion to support Anthropic, the maker of Claude AI models. Microsoft will invest up to $10 billion while NVIDIA contributes up to $5 billion. In return, Anthropic will purchase $30 billion in Azure cloud capacity and may add up to one gigawatt of additional compute. The partnership also includes integration of Claude models into Microsoft Foundry, and collaboration with NVIDIA to optimize Anthropic’s models for NVIDIA hardware and future architectures. The deal arrives as Microsoft loosens its exclusivity with OpenAI and follows recent large cloud contracts with Amazon. Read more →

Newly obtained documents show that OpenAI paid Microsoft $493.8 million in revenue share for 2024 and $865.8 million for the first three quarters of the following year, reflecting a 20 percent share of OpenAI’s earnings. The data suggests OpenAI’s revenue may have topped $2.5 billion in 2024 and $4.33 billion in the first three quarters of the next year, while its cash‑based inference spend rose to $3.8 billion in 2024 and $8.65 billion in the first nine months of the subsequent period. The disparity between revenue and inference costs raises questions about the startup’s profitability, prompting both firms to decline comment. Read more →

Microsoft has entered a five‑year, $9.7 billion agreement with Australian data‑center operator IREN to secure additional AI cloud capacity. The partnership will tap IREN’s Nvidia GB300 GPU infrastructure, slated for deployment at a Texas facility capable of delivering 750 megawatts of power. IREN is also investing in Dell‑supplied equipment worth about $5.8 billion. The deal positions Microsoft to meet rising demand for AI services on Azure and reflects a broader shift of compute assets from cryptocurrency mining to artificial‑intelligence workloads. Read more →

A revised agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI broadens Microsoft's intellectual property rights through 2032 and ties the duration of those rights to the declaration of artificial general intelligence (AGI) by an expert panel. The deal also allows OpenAI to release open-weight models that meet specific criteria, gives it flexibility to partner with third parties on non‑API products, and removes Microsoft's right of first refusal on cloud services while securing a $250 billion Azure commitment. Revenue sharing will continue until an expert panel confirms AGI, and both companies gain new options for pursuing advanced AI development. Read more →

Microsoft announced it has stopped providing Azure cloud storage and certain AI services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense after an internal investigation linked the unit’s use of its technology to the storage of surveillance data on Palestinian phone calls. The decision follows a Guardian report about Unit 8200’s use of Azure and reflects Microsoft’s long‑standing policy against facilitating mass civilian surveillance. The company said the review is ongoing, while employee activism and protests have intensified around Microsoft’s ties to Israel. Read more →

Reports allege that Israel has been recording and storing millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank on Microsoft Azure servers since 2022. Sources claim Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella personally approved a segregated Azure environment for the data, which Israeli Unit 8200 used to support airstrike planning. Microsoft maintains it has no knowledge of civilian surveillance on its platform and cites an external review that found no evidence of misuse. The revelations have intensified scrutiny of the tech firm’s role in the conflict. Read more →