Something odd happened this year. Microsoft actually seemed to start to listen.

After years of Xbox Series X|S being ignored and bereft of updates, Microsoft began issuing a flurry of new Xbox features in almost rapid-fire style. After a few years of deprioritizing Xbox community building, it has reopened Xbox FanFest this year and is even taking the event global.

Similarly, on the Windows side, after years of destroying the operating system's reputation with hollow, forced Microsoft Copilot integrations, Microsoft basically apologized for the state of the Windows 11 OS a few weeks ago. It's bringing back Windows Insider meetups and is also prioritizing new features people have been asking for years, like the vertical taskbar.

Microsoft engineers have spoken publicly about how energized they feel as a result of the pivot. It must be nice to actually work on things people want again. But ... as someone covering Microsoft for over a decade, I can't help but be suspicious. Something changed recently.

The huge pivot began this year ... But what changed?

At the start of the year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella penned a blog post on the state of tech, with some fairly candid thoughts about the company as well as the trajectory of artificial intelligence. The blog post ended up coining the term "Microslop," as users rejected Nadella's vision of a world where AI is accepted, rather than rejected, by the people it's effectively designed to replace.

Microsoft has been at the forefront of the AI debate, but not necessarily as an innovator. Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI, seeding over $13 billion into the company in exchange for what was, on paper, an incredibly lucrative exclusivity deal to its frontier AI models like GPT. Fast forward to 2026, and there are now rumors Microsoft plans to sue OpenAI over its partnerships with Amazon, SoftBank, and others, as it seems increasingly likely the pair are heading for an incredibly messy divorce.

AI is here to stay without question, regardless of what you or I say. The genie is out of the bottle, and whether what we describe as "AI" today amounts to nothing more than a cleaner Google Search or auto-complete tool on steroids, it's being leveraged in workflows in almost every industry — in the military, in government, in finance, in legal, and everything beyond and in between. Let's disregard the rampant sycophancy, errors, and hallucinations for a moment.

The big issue for Microsoft is whether it can actually make AI function as a profit-making business. For today's models (particularly OpenAI's) they're so inefficient and unprofitable, it has poisoned the entire Azure cloud operation. Given that Azure is Microsoft's biggest cash cow, that's a huge problem.

Wall Street has handed Microsoft billions in lost market capitalization over the last six months as it grows increasingly nervous over the viability of its AI and cloud businesses.

The "AI business" for Microsoft revolves around Azure and the infrastructure, rather than the products, although services like GitHub Copilot are exceedingly popular too. ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of users, and those users are battering Azure's profitability. AI workloads destroy GPU clusters far more quickly than past-gen high-margin, traditional cloud workloads, and require unprecedented amounts of electricity, water, and other materials to maintain.

Given all the hardware and capacity constraints right now, investors are increasingly concerned about the near to medium-term future for the tech, pending some major breakthroughs. Bloomberg reported that nearly "half" of U.S. data centers planned for 2026 are slated to be canceled.

I've glossed over a lot here, but the OpenAI deal with Microsoft is incredibly complicated and fraught with risk. OpenAI and its various partners are basically paying each other with debt and ephemeral commitments that may never materialize in reality, and financing that entire operation is increasingly looking like a giant, server-shaped house of cards.

OpenAI at its current trajectory isn't expected to turn a profit until 2030 at the earliest, and competition from Anthropic, and perhaps even cheaper Chinese alternatives, makes that proposition look increasingly risky on top.

The sheer scale of OpenAI and its (actual, or imagined) importance to U.S. national security is also a huge issue here. OpenAI's deal with Amazon for additional compute could represent a breach of contract for Microsoft and its IP rights to GPT and other OpenAI models ... would the U.S. government side with OpenAI in any subsequent court battle?

Basically, what I'm saying in a nutshell here, Microsoft could very much be left holding a huge, festering bag as a result of its "partnership" with notoriously untrustworthy financier Sam Altman and his profit-allergic OpenAI operation. It's a risk that could still pay off, in much the same way that Amazon did, growing its digital businesses. Amazon is a global default in various markets now. Microsoft's capital expenditure right now is a bet on becoming the same for artificial intelligence as a category.

I think either way, Microsoft is well-positioned for a future-facing, more realistic, less hype-driven artificial intelligence industry. But I can't help but feel in my bones that Microsoft knows it has a dud with OpenAI, architecturally maybe, but also simply strategically. There are reams of reports that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is untrustworthy at best, and potentially even "sociopathic" at worst.

Breaking up with OpenAI will be a short-term catastrophe for Microsoft, on the hook for billions in capital expenditure and AI infrastructure building — infrastructure specifically designed for ChatGPT and other OpenAI models. I highly doubt Azure will be in a situation where its GPUs end up sitting idle; demand for compute is well and truly outstripping supply. But given all the stakeholders ... it will doubtlessly be messy.

In a post-partnership world, Microsoft might have realized it should revisit and, dare I say, maintain some of its more reliable staples.

OpenAI has Microsoft holding the bag. And if it all fails ... well, you're kind of going to need Windows and Xbox.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke in his New Year blog of "societal permission" within the context of AI.

I can't help but feel like Microsoft's broader public image might've been weighing on Satya Nadella's mind as he wrote that. Everywhere you look online, it feels like people well and truly hate Microsoft. For a brief flicker in time, between truly epic Surface innovations, huge investments in Xbox, and even Windows Phone before that, it felt like Microsoft wanted to be seen as consumer-first. Even cool.

In 2026, Microsoft is at the apex of uncool.

Xbox spent the last few years ignoring its customers and community, speed running with Xbox marketing campaigns that literally told people not to buy its products, while leaving Xbox Series X|S consoles unstocked and unavailable to purchase in many cases. After investing billions in the form of studios for Xbox content, Microsoft also decided Xbox didn't need any unique selling points, and began putting the games onto PlayStation, which is now a bigger audience for Microsoft than Xbox itself.

Windows 11 has seen similar stagnation. The absolute PR disaster with the privacy-destroying Windows Recall drama, the complete failure of the Copilot+ PC branding and rollout, and the death of Surface innovation ... Windows itself has created unprecedented interest in competing platforms, like Linux, SteamOS, and potentially even the incumbent Android PC project from Google.

Nobody with a brain is denying that artificial intelligence in at least some form isn't crucial for Microsoft's long-term future in tech, but over the last few years, it has come at a huge cost. Both literally and figuratively.

The public hates artificial intelligence for its destruction of the internet, consumer electronics prices, and jobs. Microsoft is the corporate face of AI, by its own design, and neglect of its core services and products that regular people pay for is the cost. The damage to Microsoft's reputation over the last few years is unlike anything I've personally experienced in my 13 years covering Microsoft. It'll take more than a couple of weeks of minor updates to Windows and Xbox to fix that.

Either way, it seems clear to me that something very specific changed within Microsoft this year. I can't help but think it smells a bit like panic. And you can't spell that without AI.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Microsoft and other hyperscalers are set for a big windfall if this new report is true.

One of the biggest constraints facing Big Tech right now revolves almost entirely around U.S. economic policy. The Trump administration's often arbitrary application of tariffs on foreign goods has wrought havoc across various industries, pushing up prices for U.S. consumers while wiping out hundreds of thousands of jobs. Amazon alone is cutting 16,000 positions as of January, and Microsoft laid off over 10,000 throughout last year.

"Line must go up" mentality has forced firms to cut costs in and push up its prices to offset margin pressure from tariffs, which act as tax on imported goods into the United States. For Microsoft, that means higher costs on various consumer goods, including Windows PCs, Surface devices, and Xbox consoles. Even products exempted from the tariffs directly may see added costs by virtue of their supply chains also seeing added costs. Firms pass on losses to consumers in the form of higher prices. For Microsoft, consumer devices are only a small part of its problem.

The biggest pressure point for Microsoft and other hyperscalers like Amazon and Google revolves around cloud and AI-first data centers. Building out compute for artificial intelligence platforms is becoming so expensive that it has investors spooked. Microsoft and Amazon both have seen hundreds of billions in market capitalization wiped out over capital expenditure concerns.

A new report in Financial Times suggests that relief may be on the way.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, albeit unauthorized to speak officially, FT says that the U.S. administration is allowing TSMC to provide exemptions to specific companies from an updated tariff regime. The White House is trying to incentivize TSMC and other chip makers to invest in U.S. manufacturing instead, to which Taiwan-based TSMC has pledged $165 billion in future investments.

The tariff carve-outs would reportedly be tied to how Taiwan allocates investments in building out U.S.-based chip manufacturing operations, although the source says the plans are still in "flux."

RELATED: Beat tariffs with these massive laptop deals

Microsoft is using TSMC to build its home-grown Maia 100, Maia 200 and Cobalt 100 AI data center chips, it also indirectly partners with TSMC for most of its other silicon needs. Microsoft and ASUS' Xbox Ally gaming handheld uses AMD's Z2 chipset, largely fabricated via TSMC. The next-gen Xbox SoC, codenamed Magnus by AMD, is also most likely being produced by TSMC. White House officials and TSMC both declined to comment.

While the report might be hopeful news for investors, it could also have positive impacts on consumers down the line. The TSMC-dependant Xbox Series X|S saw price increases last year as a direct result of U.S. tariff impacts. The move might signal at least partial acknowledgement of the negative impact on pricing — as mid-term elections loom.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

OpenAI is on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars, but profitability today seems like a total fantasy. How can it survive? More investment, of course.

Following reports that various companies, from Microsoft to Amazon and Softbank, are all looking to help prop up the struggling ChatGPT maker, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently fielded questions about its own firm's involvement.

OpenAI is facing huge pressure from Google Gemini, whose resurgent models have beaten OpenAI not only in general benchmarking, but also efficiency. Google Gemini exists within a company that controls the entire stack, from server tech to models, to research, and then endpoints. OpenAI relies on inefficient and complex partnerships with third-party companies, such as NVIDIA and Microsoft, in order to operate.

Many of these deals don't exactly favor OpenAI particularly well, sealed in the company's early years. OpenAI has also been struggling to get users to actually pay for its services. Despite having hundreds of millions of monthly active users on ChatGPT and its other products, the vast majority of those users are completely unmonetizable.

OpenAI has been flirting with including ads and product recommendations to build revenue, but doing so risks exacerbating ChatGPT's exodus to Google Gemini and other competing products.

Speaking with CNBC, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that reports that his firm was "unhappy" with OpenAI were "nonsense."

Jensen Huang was responding to reports that the chip giant and the world's most valuable company was exploring a $100 billion investment in OpenAI. The reports began circling last fall, although the investment never materialized. Why? NVIDIA was reportedly unhappy with OpenAI's business model, which, on paper, doesn't seem like a sure-fire thing to the untrained eye. NVIDIA apparently disagrees.

"We're going to make a huge investment in OpenAI," Huang said. "I believe in OpenAI, the work they do is incredible. They are one of the most consequential companies of our time, and I really love working with Sam."

Huang said that Sam Altman is still working on OpenAI's latest investment round, with some reports suggesting it could come with valuations of anywhere up to $830 billion dollars — which would be record-breaking.

"We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we've ever made," Huang said, but denied reports that it would be anywhere near the previously-rumored $100 billion.

OpenAI's future hangs in the balance

The entire circus around artificial intelligence doesn't look to be ending any time soon. Despite having no apparent path to profitability, insiders at companies like Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, Softbank, and various others are still lining up to burn cash on the chatbot maker.

On the face of it, OpenAI could only realistically achieve serious returns for investors by replacing human workers at a scale unlike anything we've ever seen in history. The idea that OpenAI can possibly deliver on some of these sky-high valuations doesn't seem feasible without pandemic-scale automation being the real play here. If all ChatGPT ends up boiling down to is a "better search engine," that hardly seems like enough to justify the frenzy revolving around it.

None of Sam Altman's loftier promises have come true. OpenAI has yet to deliver any real, tangible benefits for society at scale, beyond novelties and modest productivity gains in document-heavy industries. Given how much large language models actively cost to run, it might simply end up being not be worth the effort.

Investors handed Microsoft a $440 billion rout last week, after the firm failed to show that its AI investments were delivering the types of returns that would justify its infrastructural capital expenditure.

There's clearly going to be winners and losers as a result of this new computing paradigm, but increasingly it feels like these companies know something about OpenAI that the rest of us don't ...

If I had to guess based on the situation on the ground, Google is going to end up being the frontrunner, with Microsoft absorbing the charred remains of OpenAI when payments finally come due. But what do you think?

Microsoft has been an ever present partner in Formula 1 (F1) for quite some time now, but from 2026 the company is switching partners.

Having been initially with Lotus back in 2012, and more recently the latest iteration of that team, Alpine, the 2026 season sees Microsoft beginning a new, multi-year relationship with Mercedes-AMG.

Beyond having the Microsoft logo proudly displayed on this year's car, what else does this partnership actually involve? Shocking precisely nobody, AI (and Azure).

It looks like an extension of tools Mercedes has already been using, and is one of the industries that AI makes a ton of sense. F1 teams have an insane quantity of data to crunch through, and deploying AI to make it easier just sounds like a no-brainer.

Cloud tech through Azure and AI isn't where it ends, though. Mercedes will also be further leveraging Microsoft's GitHub to "modernize and accelerate development workflows."

Microsoft has been getting some flack of late for its obsession with AI, but personally, my own critique has been that there's never much to show why people should care.

Admittedly, none of us will be running out to start an F1 team any time soon, but this is one of those times that AI truly makes a difference. It's capable of crunching far more data, faster, than any human being ever could.

F1 lives and dies by data. Sure, the drivers are the ones piloting the cars, but without the mountains of sensor information crunched in real-time, it's like driving with a parachute pulling them back.

Maybe we'll be seeing the Microsoft logo back on the podium this year. Here's hoping.

I was recently reminded of something Amazon chairman and founder Jeff Bezos said at a talk a few years ago, and given the direction artificial intelligence is taking, it seems increasingly relevant today.

Microsoft has made no secret of its plans to create an "AI first" Windows, with tensions between users and shareholders essentially reaching fever pitch over the last year or so. Microsoft (oft-nicknamed Microslop in the AI era) has been leveraging its OpenAI-powered chatbot Copilot in a variety of half-baked integrations across its various products.

There's a Copilot button in Outlook now, not that it can read your emails. There's a Copilot button in Microsoft Paint, for some pointless reason. And even Notepad, which was supposed to be the light-weight alternative to Word, now also inexplicably has Copilot text generation integration. The list goes on.

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying very hard in good faith to understand Microsoft's consumer strategy here. The consumer-grade Copilot apps and features simply aren't good by any objective measure. In years past, Microsoft would've slapped a (beta) tag on this type of thing to explain the performance delta. Yet here, Microsoft is actively marketing Copilot — and worse, many of the prompts and features it showcases in Copilot marketing don't actually work as advertised.

Could there be an ulterior motive here? Well, perhaps Jeff Bezos touched on at least one possible explanation.

Bezos himself says in this piece that humans tend to over-estimate risk and under-estimate opportunity, and while Bezos has undoubtedly misfired on various lofty predictions in the past, his foresight with regards to things like online retail and cloud compute absolutely cannot be denied. Bezos is one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs in history after all, and his ability to predict and leverage trends has been a big part of that.

👉 Related: Conspiracy theory or apt prediction? — The AI-fueled hardware shortage will kill local PCs, paving the way for subscription-based cloud computing

So, what prediction did Bezos make back then, that seems particularly poignant right now? Bezos thinks that local PC hardware is antiquated, and that the future will revolve around cloud computing scenarios, where you rent your compute from companies like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure.

Bezos told an anecdote about visiting a historical brewery to emphasize his point. He said that the hundreds-year old brewery had a museum celebrating its heritage, and had an exhibit for a 100-year old electric generator they used before national power grids were a thing. Bezos said he saw this generator in the same way he sees local computing solutions today — inferring on hopes that users will move away from local hardware to rented, always-online cloud-based solutions offered by Amazon and other similar companies.

Bezos described a future that is already coming true in various ways.

The very idea of simply owning a screen, keyboard, and mouse, and using Windows remotely via a subscription will likely send shivers down many of your spines — but you have to consider the trends here.

Hundreds of millions of us have already given away ownership over music, TV shows, and movies to cloud companies like Spotify and Netflix — both of which run on Amazon Web Services. Cloud gaming products like Amazon Luna, NVIDIA GeForce Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming are all seeing steady growth, too — but it's not just about these niche scenarios.

The vast majority of apps and services people engage with online are all entirely cloud-based, from Fortnite to TikTok. Is it really so far fetched to imagine that most people would most likely be "fine" with renting their full computing solutions from companies like Microsoft and Amazon?

There's nothing wrong with it as an option, of course. But what if we end up not having a much of a choice in the coming years?

We've written a fair bit about how DRAM prices are becoming untenable for consumers. Companies like Dell, ASUS, and others have signalled price increases across their PC range in the coming weeks, with chip companies like Micron and Samsung flat out refusing consumer-grade orders for DRAM allocations. Micron has shut down its consumer operations for DRAM in their entirety.

And why? The answer is AI. Or, well, the answer really is cloud.

Will the death of affordable PC components force regular folk to hunt for cloud computing solutions?

AI needs the "cloud" in order to run. Every ChatGPT question, Grok bikini deepfake, or Copilot MS Paint memeslop requires cloud compute to generate. That means DRAM, but also increasingly other components too. SSD storage is the next component expected to hit a shortage, battering consumer prices hard in the process.

Those who have decent PC, gaming consoles, and laptops today are likely insulated in the near term, but what about the long term? What about when those components inevitably break down, or get broken? What will prices look like in 2-3 years?

Some analysts suggest RAM prices could stabilize in a year or two, but consumers are effectively competing with nation states when it comes to some of these components. AI proponents like OpenAI's Sam Altman have legislators convinced that the tech is a matter of national security, either by way of military applications or as-of-yet unrealized technological discoveries and advancements. Luckily for Altman and shareholders, those unrealized promises require trillions of dollars worth of investment, specifically in cloud computing solutions, to actualize.

There's a hard cap on the amount of chips the human race can physically produce at any one time, at least as of writing. With nation states effectively printing money to outbid consumer tech companies on basic components, I'm not sure demand will come down any time soon. That is, of course, unless those investors and nation states stop believing AI can deliver anything more impressive than repackaged reddit answers, memeslop, and blog posts for the vast majority ...

Microsoft was already working on a cloud-based version of Windows for consumers, based on its business-grade cloud PC product Windows 365. It has seemingly deprioritized the consumer version over the past few years, doubtless in part because the economics don't work today, given that you can still get pretty cheap, but also decent casual laptops. But given the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft ended up making another go of it.

Either way, cloud compute isn't exactly cheap to run either. Xbox Game Pass' 1440p cloud gaming costs $30 a month, and NVIDIA itself just added a 100-hour cap to its cloud gaming platforms, most likely because the economics simply doesn't work to make it any more affordable vs. what people are actually willing to pay. The same could be true for AI solutions like ChatGPT and Copilot. Are the products actually good enough for most people that you'd want to pay for them?

They're free right now as Microsoft et al. hopes to form habits around them and then eventually charge for them. But, if they took ChatGPT and Copilot away from users tomorrow and asked them to pay $10 a month for it, I think many of us would be like "nah, I'm good." These products right now are costing millions of dollars a day to run, and have yet to actually generate profitability for many of the biggest players. That's a real problem.

It's easy to get conspiratorial in today's times and presume that this was all part of some wider co-ordinated plan to rob us of the last vestiges of ownership, but unless something changes with regards to electricity costs and the like, I'm not seeing this future.

Cloud computing is essentially local computing with extra, quite pricy steps today for consumer use scenarios. Unless the economics of local hardware truly does fall off a cliff somewhere down the line, I can't see Bezos' vision of a cloud-only future coming true any time soon — even for casual PC users.

I'm sure these companies salivate at the idea of destroying all means of ownership. But, if Spotify and Netflix are evidence, perhaps people at scale really don't care either way.

Original article:

If you've been waiting for Xbox Cloud Gaming to go live in India, you might be in luck.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is Microsoft's subscription based game streaming service, allowing you to play a large variety of games remotely from Microsoft's Azure cloud.

Different tiers of Xbox Game Pass give access to different tiers of Xbox Cloud Gaming. Essentials gives you basic access, with a couple of dozen games and lowest queue priority. Premium gives you some more games, and boosted queue priority, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gives you hundreds of games, as well as 1440p resolution, boosted bitrate, and day one Xbox games like Call of Duty.

The service is currently officially supported in 28 regions. Many of the world's biggest gaming markets are omitted, however, including the likes of China. One of the world's fastest-growing gaming markets may be looking to join the party, though.

Spotted by Better XCloud developer RedPhx, Microsoft appears to be inserting Xbox Cloud Gaming into servers across India, whose gamers currently rank around 7th in the world for gaming spend.

The new Xbox Cloud Gaming stacks have appeared in the Central India Azure data center located in Pune, Maharashtra, and the South India data center, located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Central India sports Microsoft's most advanced data center in the region, although its South and West India data centers are also expanding.

Xbox Cloud Gaming recently picked up some of its most impressive upgrades yet, with 1440p resolution and boosted bitrate actually taking it further than Xbox Series X|S console remote play in terms of quality. The amount of games that support this new boosted resolution is relatively low, but it will grow rapidly over time. Microsoft's "Stream Your Own Game" feature on Xbox Cloud Gaming rolled out a few months ago, but already boasts over 2100 titles from Xbox's extensive console game library.

Today, Xbox Cloud Gaming is available in 26 regions, including: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. It works on any modern web browser via xbox.com/play with an Xbox controller, and also on Samsung TVs, any Windows 10 or 11 PC, Amazon Fire Stick TV dongles, and much more.

Microsoft is in an increasingly competitive space, as players like NVIDIA GeForce Now and Sony PlayStation continue to vie for the top spot in this nascent market.

NVIDIA GeForce Now leverages its industry-leading GPUs to provide what is arguably the best resolution and streaming experience, although its UX across devices can be a bit iffy. Xbox Cloud Gaming is catching up to NVIDIA GFN in terms of quality, but is arguably the most user-friendly of the three, while also sporting Xbox's massive content library.

PlayStation Plus is no slouch, though. Powered by its Gaikai acquisition a few years back, Sony remains a pioneer in the space. They've become the first of the traditional console makers to release a dedicated cloud gaming handheld with the PlayStation Portal, although you do still need a PS5 console to perform the initial set up (at least as of writing).

All three services are bottle necked in different ways by Apple and Google's draconian mobile stores, sadly, but Xbox does have a capable web app, and thanks to Azure, a global expansion advantage as we might be seeing here in India. However, it might be a bit too early to celebrate, given that Xbox Cloud Gaming was also activated in Chile back in the summer, but has yet to materialize as an officially supported region.

We've reached out to Microsoft to see if they can give us any more details on India joining the us in the xclouds. Watch this space.

UPDATE: Confirmed, Xbox Cloud Gaming is now available in India. Head over to Xbox.com/Play to get started.

If you're running into errors trying to visit certain websites or use online services right now, you're not alone. That's because Microsoft Azure — the company's cloud computing platform that it and many other companies use for sites, programs, games, and more — has gone down, leading to widespread outages for a variety of services.

Downdetector — a site that aggregates reports of issues experienced with online services in real-time — began to signal that Azure and everything that relies on it was experiencing a severe outage on Wednesday morning, and issues with affected services remain ongoing.

Microsoft is aware of the problem and is actively working on resolving it, with updates coming at timed intervals on the firm's Azure status page.

"Starting at approximately 16:00 UTC, we began experiencing Azure Front Door issues resulting in a loss of availability of some services. In addition, customers may experience issues accessing the Azure Portal," wrote the company. "Customers can attempt to use programmatic methods (PowerShell, CLI, etc.) to access/utilize resources if they are unable to access the portal directly. We have failed the portal away from Azure Front Door (AFD) to attempt to mitigate the portal access issues and are continuing to assess the situation."

"We are actively assessing failover options of internal services from our AFD infrastructure," it continued. "Our investigation into the contributing factors and additional recovery workstreams continues."

The TL;DR? Microsoft is doing everything it can to find the root of the issue and take care of it so that Azure and everything that uses it can resume normal operation. Until that happens, though, all users can do is wait for a fix.

Some services hit by Azure's outage include the online functionality of Microsoft's own Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook, as well as the business messaging and collaboration program Microsoft Teams, its AI assistant Microsoft Copilot, and the network of its Xbox gaming brand.

Some others are specific games such as the ever-popular Minecraft, digital services for Capital One banking, Starbucks, Costco, Xfinity, Walmart, and many other different programs and brands.

Even the launch of The Outer Worlds 2 has been affected, with many customers currently unable to purchase or install Obsidian Entertainment's new Xbox RPG as a result of the Azure troubles. Considering that The Outer Worlds 2 is one of Microsoft's biggest Xbox and Xbox Game Pass releases this year, it's quite unfortunate that its arrival has been hamstrung by this outage.

With any luck, we'll see a full resolution come sooner rather than later, though ultimately, only time will tell what happens. Microsoft is now in the process of rolling Azure services back to the "last known good state," which may or may not fix the problem. Hopefully it will.

It's worth noting that this Azure outage comes a little over a week after Amazon Web Services (AWS) went down, resulting in tons of different services, websites, and games going down in a similar manner. Azure going down hasn't affected quite as much, but even so, we've had some strong reminders of just how reliant the tools and programs we use on a day-to-day basis are on a select few platforms in recent times.

The US government could receive over $3 billion worth of AI assistance from Microsoft over the next year.

Earlier this week, Microsoft and the US General Services Administration (GSA) jointly announced an agreement that provides cloud services to government agencies at no cost or at a discount. AI services that are part of the deal include Microsoft 365 Copilot at no cost for up to 12 months.

Discounts will also be available to federal agencies on Microsoft 365, Azure Cloud Services, Dynamics 365, and cybersecurity and monitoring tools.

Microsoft will deliver over $3 billion in cost savings within the first year of the agreement. The deal could end up saving significantly more since discounts are available for up to three years.

The GSA is an independent agency of the US government. It manages federal property and provides government agencies with contracting options.

The goal of the agreement is to help government agencies adopt AI tools. Microsoft's services will be offered throughout the government.

Federal agencies will have the option to access a unique version of the Microsoft 365 Copilot suite that's only available to the federal government. As part of the agreement, there are no per-agent fees for AI agents.

Azure discounts will be offered to agencies, and data egress fees will be waived entirely. Those fees are usually incurred when data is transferred out of Azure data centers.

Discounted pricing will be available to federal agencies for up to 36 months.

Measuring the impact of Copilot

I recently spoke with Nerdio VP of Product Amol Dalvi to discuss the roadblocks to organizations adopting Copilot. While my meeting did not address the recent agreement between the US government and Microsoft, Dalvi provided insight into the challenge of assessing how useful Copilot is.

Many organizations want to measure Copilot and other AI tools strictly in terms of return on investment (ROI). Like balancing a checkbook, they want to be able to see how much is spent on a tool and how much money the tool "saves." But in reality, it's difficult — or impossible — to measure ROI in financial terms.

Instead, the value of Copilot should be looked at in terms of impact. Dalvi explained that Copilot should be measured in terms of productivity gains.

Does using the tool save time? Can human experts better use their time elsewhere since Copilot can handle tasks and streamline particular workflows?

Through its agreement with the US government, Microsoft is giving federal agencies the chance to measure the impact of Copilot without having as high an overhead cost. The discounts and free access to certain products allow agencies to see the real-world changes AI can have.

What Microsoft and the US government have said

Several government employees and members of Microsoft's staff commented on the agreement.

GSA Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian:

"GSA is proud to partner with technology companies, like Microsoft, to advance AI adoption across the federal government, a key priority of the Trump Administration. We urge our federal partners to leverage these agreements, providing government workers with transformative AI tools that streamline operations, cut costs, and enhance results."

Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum:

"GSA is accelerating access to AI for federal agencies and delivering on the President’s AI Action Plan. OneGov represents a paradigm shift in federal procurement that is leading to immense cost savings, achieved by leveraging the purchasing power of the entire federal government. We appreciate Microsoft’s partnership in this modernization and its commitment toward an interoperable digital federal ecosystem."

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella:

"For more than four decades, Microsoft has partnered with the U.S. Government to serve the American people. With this new agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration, including a no-cost Microsoft 365 Copilot offer, we will help federal agencies use AI and digital technologies to improve citizen services, strengthen security, and save taxpayers more than $3 billion in the first year alone."

Nadella also took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the news:

"This collaboration is about empowering public servants with the tools they need to deliver on their missions more effectively and securely. By bringing the latest advances in cloud and AI — including Azure, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Dynamics 365, and our security platforms — backed by industry-leading security and compliance certifications, we aim to help agencies modernize systems, improve citizen services, and advance their technology transformation goals."

Chris Barry, Corporate Vice President, US Public Sector Industries, Microsoft:

"As GSA seeks to transform government in this new era of AI, Microsoft is committed to leading as the government’s essential partner in delivering the tools necessary to help federal agencies harness the power of AI to advance the public good."

Federal agencies can opt in to any or all of the offers through September 2026, giving those agencies a year to assess which tools should be implemented.

As the race to modernize government tech intensifies, Microsoft’s $6 billion cloud and AI deal marks a pivotal moment — not just for cost savings, but for shaping how federal agencies work in the years ahead.

With free Copilot access, deep discounts across Office and Azure, and a strategic push into AI infrastructure, this agreement could redefine the public sector’s digital future. Whether it’s a bold leap forward or just the beginning, one thing’s clear: the tools of tomorrow are already arriving in Washington.

Microsoft and Amazon find themselves in the sights of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). An investigation by the CMA looked into the cloud services market to determine if anything harms competition.

The CMA determined that "competition is not working well" and has shared recommendations to solve the situation. An independent CMA panel found the cloud services market to be “highly concentrated,” with Microsoft and AWS dominating the space and each holding up to a 40% share.

Microsoft trails AWS in terms of revenue in the cloud services market, but both companies make billions in the space and are far ahead of competitors in terms of share. The panel's report explained that other cloud providers would struggle to close the gap, partly due to the size and dominance of AWS and Microsoft's Azure.

But Microsoft is in a unique position due to its licensing practices, according to the panel:

"Microsoft’s licensing practices are adversely impacting the competitiveness of AWS and Google in the supply of cloud services, particularly in competing for customers that purchase cloud services which use the relevant Microsoft software as an input. As a result, Microsoft faces weaker competitive constraints from AWS and Google, its most significant competitors, which is reducing competition in cloud services markets."

The CMA's decision on potential remedies includes a recommendation to consider designating Microsoft and AWS with strategic market status (SMS):

"In order to remedy the harms to competition that we have found, we recommend that the CMA Board use its digital markets powers to prioritise commencing SMS investigations to consider designating the two largest providers Microsoft and AWS with strategic market status (SMS) in relation to their respective digital activities in cloud services. This would enable the CMA to impose targeted and bespoke interventions to address the concerns we have identified, including with respect to features where there are specification risks around the design of effective market interventions."

If that designation was given, the CMA could address specific concerns related to the cloud services and impose targeted interventions.

Record-breaking revenue for Azure

Microsoft's recent earning statement shared that the tech giant's Azure cloud computing unit surpassed $75 billion in revenue during the 2025 fiscal year. Azure revenue rose 39% in the most recent quarter, beating forecasts made by industry experts.

That figure is particularly noteworthy because it’s the first time Microsoft has shared revenue numbers for the Azure cloud computing unit.

Microsoft surpassed expectations for overall revenue in the most recent fiscal quarter as well. Overall revenue increased 18% to $76.4 billion.

The strong quarter helped Microsoft become the world's second $4 trillion company, following in the footsteps of NVIDIA.

Oddly, Microsoft disputed the CMA’s findings while simultaneously describing the cloud market as highly competitive and dynamic.

"The CMA panel’s most recent publication misses the mark again, ignoring that the cloud market has never been so dynamic and competitive, with record investment, and rapid, AI-driven changes," said Microsoft to The Financial Times.

Amazon took a different approach, stating, "The inquiry group’s final report disregards clear evidence of robust competition in the UK’s IT services industry, which cloud computing has revolutionised by dramatically reducing costs and expanding customer choice and flexibility."

We'll have to wait to see if Azure and AWS are designated with SMS before we can predict what steps Microsoft and AWS may be required to take.

Yesterday evening Microsoft posted its FY25 Q3 results, and it was pretty much a clean slate of growth across the board. Microsoft's shares rose on the news, which grew 1.2+ points in after hours trading, likely to grow further when the markets open fully later today.

"We delivered a strong quarter with Microsoft Cloud revenue of $42.4 billion, up 20% year-over-year," CEO Satya Nadella said, "driven by continued demand for our differentiated offerings."

• Microsoft's revenue hit $70.1 billion in revenue, 13% up year-over-year, with an operating income of $32 billion and a net income of $25.8 billion.
• Earnings per share hit $3.46, beating Wall Street estimates.
• Microsoft's Productivity and Businesses revenue grew 10%, driven by Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
• Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure, grew by a massive 21%, with Azure alone growing 33% year-over-year.
• More Personal Computing revenue, which includes Windows, rose 6%.
• Xbox and gaming grew by 6% overall, with hardware down 6% and content and services growing 8%. PC Game Pass grew by 45% year over year, and Xbox Cloud Gaming hit 150 million hours streamed for the quarter, up 10 million.
• Microsoft returned $9.7 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks.

Microsoft was keen to emphasize that global tariffs and geopolitical issues threaten economic certainty may undermine its future profitability in the near term, but remained optimistic on AI and cloud services as key drivers of growth. Microsoft also mentioned opportunities around its quantum computing efforts, fostered by the Majorana-1 breakthrough.

Microsoft also hailed boosted engagement with services like Copilot and Bing, noting that Copilot usage grew 35% quarter over quarter, with Copilot on Microsoft 365 servicing "100 million" users. Bing engagement also increased by 22% apparently, too.

Unfortunately, Microsoft made no mention of Surface itself in this earnings report, although it is thought that new Surface devices under the Copilot+ range are just around the corner.

Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has transformed its fortunes from legacy software company to cloud behemoth, but we might be seeing the upper limits of a maturing industry.

According to a new report by Bloomberg (thanks, Fordabrand), Microsoft is reducing its data center footprint in the United States and Europe. Bloomberg received the information via a memo originating from investment bank TD Cowen, which states Microsoft plans to reduce its leases representing "a couple hundred megawatts." Microsoft's hyperscale Azure cloud data centers typically consume around a hundred megawatts according to some sources, which suggests that this cancellation represents at least two hyperscale data centers.

Indeed, Microsoft only recently secured an additional 475 megawatts of solar power in Texas specifically for its data center aspirations, and has been exploring nuclear energy as another way to power its energy needs without boosting its carbon emissions.

The reasons for Microsoft's shift in strategy aren't entirely clear right now, with Bloomberg offering speculations on potential oversupply, with demand waning.

Considering Microsoft Copilot, its OpenAI partnership, and future-facing technologies like Xbox Cloud Gaming all require data centers to operate — it could indicate that Microsoft has found an upper ceiling to demand for these products. Everything from Xbox Live, OneDrive, Outlook, and beyond all require vast amounts of data center processing to operate.

Is Microsoft expecting slowing demand? Perhaps, but it could also indicate that Microsoft may aim to grow capacity by focusing on efficiencies rather than raw power. China's DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the industry a few weeks ago owing to its reportedly lower power consumption and boosted efficiency over OpenAI's models, although the truth may be a little murkier.

It's particularly odd, since Sam Altman of OpenAI and U.S. President Donald Trump announced only a short while ago the plan to invest upwards of half a trillion dollars into boosting American AI platforms. AI is often regarded as a national security issue these days, and the signal Microsoft is sending could be interpreted as tantamount to clearing the field for competitors.

In any case, we've reached out to Microsoft to learn more ...

UPDATE (March 26, 2025): ... and now they've responded. A Microsoft spokesperson says the firm is still investing to the tune of "over $80 billion" in growing infrastructure projects at a "record pace."

"Thanks to the significant investments we have made up to this point, we are well positioned to meet our current and increasing customer demand. Last year alone, we added more capacity than any prior year in history. While we may strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions. This allows us to invest and allocate resources to growth areas for our future. Our plans to spend over $80B on infrastructure this FY remain on track as we continue to grow at a record pace to meet customer demand."

As you might already know, OpenAI and key investors, including SoftBank and Oracle, recently unveiled a new project dubbed Stargate. The project is worth $500 billion and is designed to help the ChatGPT maker build data centers in the United States for its AI advances, including AGI, which SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son claims is coming very, very soon.

Microsoft is OpenAI's largest investor, with a 49% stake, translating to $14 billion. As part of its complicated partnership with the ChatGPT maker, Microsoft was once the exclusive cloud computing partner for OpenAI. However, OpenAI's $500 billion investment in computing infrastructure changes its relationship with Microsoft.

While Microsoft no longer holds the exclusive cloud provider status for OpenAI, a newly signed agreement grants the tech giant “right of first refusal.” For context, Microsoft will be the first option to host OpenAI workloads in its cloud infrastructure and services. However, if it can't meet the requirements, OpenAI can source the services from competitors.

The new agreement also retains 4 key elements of Microsoft and OpenAI's previous agreement, including:

• Microsoft has rights to OpenAI IP (inclusive of model and infrastructure) for use within our products like Copilot. This means our customers have access to the best model for their needs.
• The OpenAI API is exclusive to Azure, runs on Azure and is also available through the Azure OpenAI Service. This agreement means customers benefit from having access to leading models on Microsoft platforms and direct from OpenAI.
• Microsoft and OpenAI have revenue sharing agreements that flow both ways, ensuring that both companies benefit from increased use of new and existing models.
• Microsoft remains a major investor in OpenAI, providing funding and capacity to support their advancements and, in turn, benefiting from their growth in valuation.

According to Microsoft:

“OpenAI recently made a new, large Azure commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training. To further support OpenAI, Microsoft has approved OpenAI’s ability to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models.”

This news comes amid reports citing OpenAI complaints about Microsoft's struggles to meet its cloud computational needs. The report further suggested that the tech giant's failure to meet its computational demands has delayed the release of next-gen AI products, hurting its chances of hitting the coveted AGI benchmarks ahead of its competitors such as Anthropic and Google.

Elsewhere, it was also reported that OpenAI has plans to scrap a stringent clause severing its partnership with Microsoft after hitting the AGI benchmark to secure more funding and extend access to its vast resources. For context, intricate details about Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI suggest that AGI, at least figuratively, constitutes an AI system generating $100 billion in profit.

Related: Investors mount pressure on OpenAI to turn into a for-profit in 2 years

This is amid bankruptcy reports, with projections of the ChatGPT maker making a loss of $5 billion in 12 months. However, a funding round from investors, including Microsoft, NVIDIA, and SoftBank, raising $6.6 billion kept the AI firm in business, pushing its market cap beyond $157 billion. Interestingly, market analysts predict Microsoft could acquire OpenAI in 3 years as investor interest in AI begins to fade. They further project OpenAI could make an additional $44 billion loss before seeing a profit in 2029, partly due to its Microsoft tie-up.

What you need to know

• If you're experiencing issues with Microsoft services right now, chances are you're not alone. 
• Microsoft reported a major Azure outage this morning, affecting services like Microsoft 365, Outlook, and more. 
• The system seems to be in a recovery state right now, although users may still be experiencing issues for the time being. 

Microsoft has been hit with another major outage, hot on the heels of last week's Crowdstrike drama. 

Now, services tied to Azure, including Microsoft 365, Xbox network, Outlook, OneDrive, and others have been experiencing issues, with Down Detector experiencing a spike in connection issue reports. 

Azure is Microsoft's global cloud network, with dozens of data centers dotted around the globe. The network outage appears to be impacting every region across the globe, although Microsoft's Azure for Government section remains unaffected, owing to the additional contingencies put in place for nation states. 

The warning on the Azure status page reads as follows:

"Network Infrastructure - Issues accessing a subset of Microsoft services

Starting approximately at 11:45 UTC on 30 July 2024, a subset of customers may have experienced issues connecting to Microsoft services globally.

Current Status: We have implemented networking configuration changes and have performed failovers to alternate networking paths to provide relief. Monitoring telemetry shows improvement in service availability from approximately 14:10 UTC onwards, and we are continuing to monitor to ensure full recovery."

Questions of IT infrastructure are a hot topic right now

During the Paris Olympics, French security services reported various attacks on local IT infrastructure, including fibre optic cables and the like. There has also been some high-profile nation-backed cyberattacks on network infrastructure devices, including notorious router hacks, as well as embarrassing security breaches across Microsoft's own email systems. 

Last week's big Crowdstrike snafu knocked out millions of kiosk computers across the globe, bringing down payment systems, flight tracking systems, and other critical infrastructure platforms based on Windows. Microsoft was forced by regulators in previous years to allow third-party vendors full access to the Windows kernel to sell security solutions. After giving Crowdstrike a huge degree of control over Windows security endpoints, Microsoft is now calling on regulators to be handed back full control over the keys to Windows' security apparatus. 

RELATED: Your Microsoft 365 subscription now comes with a free VPN

In a world where hostile nation states are exploiting security weaknesses across Western infrastructure platforms, cybersecurity has become a more critical issue than ever before. These types of outages on Azure (however brief) don't exactly help Microsoft's credentials, though, when it's making arguments to be given back the keys over Windows' security direction. 

What you need to know

• A huge Microsoft outage today has caused chaos across airports, hospitals, banks and more and has been described as a "digital pandemic".
• The error, caused by a bug in CrowdStrike will cause widespread issues for days to come yet, as people sleep in airports and health services globally try to recover.
• Of course, people on the internet have still been able to make memes, many memes. 

If there's anything human beings do well in times of crisis, it's buy massive volumes of toilet paper and make memes about catastrophes. Today, the Crowdstrike outage led to a global meltdown as planes were grounded, 911 lines went down, health procedures were delayed, and the most crucial disaster, Starbucks mobile orders ceased to function.

The whole crisis has been referred to as a "digital pandemic" by many tabloids, and while it may not have resulted in people queuing at Costco for bulk orders of toilet paper, it has thrown out some of the best memes I've seen in a long time. Here's our round-up of the best that social media had to offer in these trying times:

Remember the millennium bug?

As the year 2000 approached, those of us old enough to remember will recall how the world held its breath for a digital meltdown... and absolutely nothing came of it. It looks like the millennium bug was just a little tardy.

What a first day

While it wasn't this guy's actual first day, his commitment to the meme throughout the day has been stellar. Vincent has since changed his bio to "Former Crowdstrike employee, fired for an unfair reason, only changed 1 line of code to optimize. Looking for a job as a Sysadmin."

ex-UK Prime Minister catching strays

Liz Truss, the ex-UK Prime Minister famed for lasting less time in power than a lettuce, has even caught some strays in the fray today. Already subject this week to a King's Speech decreeing that " the mistakes of Liz Truss's 'mini-budget' cannot be repeated"— a comment that has since been removed at her request—she's now been blamed for Microsoft's transgressions, too. What a resume. 

You know it's good when it gets Community noted

Ah the iconic Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), while airport screeen have genuinely been affected, the Vegas Sphere was just a great joke. So great too many people fell for it and its currently showing Community note suggestions including "Fake News. The photo is from 2023, and the Sphere is located in Las Vegas, not Los Angeles."

Never forget the Suez Canal

More blue screen of death

The comment "wait are these real?" is the funniest part of this tweet. Yes, the world really is completely melting down right now!

Special mentions

The self-own...

62 minutes could bring your business down say Crowdstrike on its own website, well one update today took less than that...

Crowdstrike is now fixed

Here's how to fix the Crowdstrike Blue Screen error on Windows 11 if you're still having issues. The disaster may now be over, but many services will be recovering for days to come. And, of course, the memes will live on. 

What you need to know

• Microsoft services have been impacted by a global outage, reportedly caused by bugs affecting Crowdstrike.
• Crowdstrike has posted that the issue has been identified and isolated, and a fix has been deployed but many services need to restart and are stuck in a boot loop.
• Azure has been effected along with Microsoft 365 apps. Microsoft's 'fix' for this instructs users to restart multiple times, "as many as 15," to restore service.

It's been a wild morning for services dependent on Microsoft, with widespread global IT outages some reporters are referring to as a "digital pandemic." Planes have been grounded, bank account access frozen and even 911 operators affected by the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

The mass outage, caused by an issue with security software Crowdstrike, has reportedly been "identified and isolated" with a fix deployed. Still, for the fix to work, many services must reboot. The old "turn it off and on again" will save us, and if it doesn't, don't worry—Microsoft says just do it 15 times. Yes, really. Azure servers are affected, and consequently, Microsoft 365 apps, with the website's most recent update, instruct users to reboot as many times as it takes to get the fix working. 

Additionally, those on Windows 11 who are also affected now have a fix, as we've detailed in our new "How to fix CrowdStrike Blue Screen error on Windows 11" guide.

You can read the full update on Microsoft's website, but this is the part we found particularly amusing.

"We have received reports of successful recovery from some customers attempting multiple Virtual Machine restart operations on affected Virtual Machines. Customers can attempt to do so as follows:

• Using the Azure Portal - attempting 'Restart' on affected VMs
• Using the Azure CLI or Azure Shell (https://shell.azure.com)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/vm?view=azure-cli-latest#az-vm-restart

We've received feedback from customers that several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required, but overall feedback is that reboots are an effective troubleshooting step at this stage."

Other solutions suggested by Microsoft are "forcing an unexpected reboot. See, the driver hooks the function by patching the system call table, so it's not safe to unload it unless another thread's about to jump in and do its stuff, and you don't want to end up in the middle of invalid memory."  Or maybe that entire quote is from The IT Crowd, but the part about rebooting 15 times is actually real. If it works, it works! 

Chaos around the world

Crowdstrike is a cybersecurity firm based in the US that uses cloud-based AI and machine learning to prevent cyber attacks. It's used by government agencies, airports, and banks, amongst many others, and the update to its Falcon Sensor software has caused chaos with Windows, Microsoft 365, Amazon, and even Instagram. Microsoft has since suffered a separate outage due to the configuration change in the back end of Azure's settings, which has been fixed, but you may need to go through many restarts to see an improvement. What's most worrying is how easy it's been for this to happen. With so many systems across the world all dependent on the same software, turning it "off and on again" isn't as simple as it sounds.

Meanwhile, not everyone is unhappy about the outages, and some workers have been celebrating the early Friday finish a lack of working IT equipment has gifted them. Or alternatively, being annoyed that their laptops are working amongst the chaos.

This is a developing story and we're keeping tabs on it. Keep an eye on on our coverage for new updates, statements, and more. 

What you need to know

• Apple announced its new partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to the iPhone and overhaul Siri.
• A new report suggests OpenAI uses Microsoft's Azure cloud to exclusively power the new AI features shipping to Apple devices.
• This raises concerns about the promised security and privacy designed to protect the user's data from unauthorized access.  

Apple is knee-deep in AI after deeply integrating technology across its software and hardware at its just-concluded WWDC 2024 event. It's confirmed that Apple is in a partnership with OpenAI and that ChatGPT is on its way to the iPhone to give Siri a much-needed overhaul.

While Apple has already signed a new deal with OpenAI, it's reportedly exploring alternative options with Google and Anthropic (both key players in the AI landscape). If true, this will see Gemini AI and Claude make their way to the iPhone.

On Monday, Apple Software Chief Craig Federighi seemingly highlighted that an agreement with Google might be in the works to bring Gemini to the iPhone. According to The Information, Federighi stated that Apple made its AI debut with OpenAI because its LLM is "the best."

Federighi added:

"We think ultimately people are going to have a preference perhaps for certain models that they want to use, maybe one that's great for creative writing or one that they prefer for coding. And so, we want to enable users ultimately to bring a model of their choice. And so, we may look forward to doing integrations with different models like Google Gemini in the future. I mean, nothing to announce right now, but that's our direction."

Apple Intelligence is Apple's way into the AI fray amid rising security and privacy concerns. However, the iPhone maker touts its Private Cloud Compute system as a new era of AI privacy that addresses these concerns. Apple says it won't store or use the user's data to train its AI models. The model will predominantly run on-device, similar to Microsoft's controversial Windows Recall AI feature, which depends on dedicated on-device NPUs in Copilot+ PCs.

Interestingly, The Information notes that the features OpenAI supports for Apple are exclusively running on Microsoft's Azure cloud. Apple Intelligence relies on its foundational model and private cloud. However, this new revelation makes it impossible to decipher which features will be powered by Apple's private cloud and Microsoft's Azure cloud.

Apple promises a new standard for privacy in AI with its Private Cloud computing system. The company says OpenAI won't access data from Apple users despite powering the AI features. As such, it'll be impossible for OpenAI to train and improve the efficiency of its AI models using the data.  

Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI gets complicated by the minute

Microsoft is one of OpenAI's first and largest investors. The Redmond giant has integrated AI across most of its products and services, and there's no sign of it slowing down. 

Microsoft insiders indicate the tech giant has turned into "a glorified IT department for the hot startup." Let's not forget the privacy and security concerns prompting vigorous scrutiny by antitrust watchdogs. 

Last month, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was reportedly worried about OpenAI's new partnership with Apple and how it would impact its AI advances, products, and services, which rely heavily on the ChatGPT maker's technology.

A former OpenAI employee referred to the company CEO Sam Altman as "a genius master-class strategist" a few weeks before Apple announced its partnership with the hot startup. The ex-employee added that OpenAI now has unlimited computing power via Microsoft Azure and potential access to Apple customers.

While the fine print details around Apple's new deal with OpenAI remain slim at best, it will be interesting to see how things pan out and whether Apple will retain privacy and security across its tech stack. 

What you need to know

• Truecaller is an app that can block spam calls and identify phone numbers.
• The app can also handle phone calls for you using a digital voice.
• Now, Truecaller Assistant can create a digital copy of your own voice to answer phone calls.
• Truecaller uses Microsoft Azure AI Speech to replicate your voice.

Truecaller is a popular app for handling phone calls and preventing you from having to deal with spam. The app can identify numbers, keep an eye out for SMS fraud, and answer phone calls for you. Now, Truecaller can handle those calls with a digital replication of your voice.

The ability to replicate your voice is powered by Microsoft Azure AI Speech. That Azure technology was first released to some users at Ignite 2023 last November, but it is now generally available. Microsoft detailed the ability to create personalized voices with Azure AI Speech in a recent blog post.

Azure AI Speech can be used in a variety of situations, such as translating speech to sound as if the original speaker is speaking in another language. The tool can also be used for video content creation, audiobooks, and podcasts. Voice assistants, such as the one now available through Truecaller, can be made with Azure AI Speech as well.

"By integrating Microsoft Azure AI Speech’s personal voice capability into Truecaller, we've taken a significant step towards delivering a truly personalized and engaging communication experience. The personal voice feature allows our users to use their own voice, enabling the digital assistant to sound just like them when handling incoming calls, said Truecaller in a recent post.

"This groundbreaking capability not only adds a touch of familiarity and comfort for the users but also showcases the power of AI in transforming the way we interact with our digital assistants."

Microsoft has several safeguards in place surrounding its digital voice technology. The feature requires consent from the original speaker and disclosure of the fact that the voice is synthetic. Microsoft also prohibits using Azure AI Speech to impersonate a person or deceive people using a digital voice. Impersonation of voices has filled headlines recently with accusations of OpenAI copying Scarlett Johannson's voice.

To help with security, Microsoft automatically adds a watermark to speech output created with personal voices. The tech giant cites 99.7% accuracy when detecting watermarks in audio recordings.

Truecaller has its own security features as well, including the app specifying that a voice is a digital replication.

To create a digital copy of your voice, you just need to let Truecaller record a few seconds of your actual voice. The feature requires the latest version of the Truecaller app and a subscription to Truecaller Premium, which costs $4.99 per month.

While it's in a different sector, we've heard digital voices made with Azure before. Stardock used eight hours of AI-generated voiceover in Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova. My interview with Stardock's Brad Wardell about the game and its AI-generated voices includes examples of a voice actor and a digital copy of his voice, which should give you a gauge for how realistic Azure-created voices can sound.

What you need to know

• Microsoft's Azure AI Studio just shipped to broad availability to help developers build custom Copilot apps.
• OpenAI's GPT-4o model has also been released to Azure AI Studio as an API for a richer user experience.
• Microsoft also announced Phi-3-small, Phi-3-medium, and Phi-3-vision, a new multimodal model as part of its Phi-3 family of AI small language models (SMLs).

Microsoft is currently holding its annual developer conference, Build 2024 in Seattle. While the event is centered on AI PCs and Windows 11 on Arm, Microsoft has also made a handful of announcements around its AI efforts, particularly in its Microsoft Azure cloud service.

The tech giant says the new advances in Azure will help users build "transformational" AI experiences, further stating, "there’s never been a more exciting time to be a developer."

Right off the bat, Microsoft has announced that its Azure AI Studio has finally shipped to broad availability. For context, Azure AI Studio is an important pro-code tool that allows developers to build custom Copilot apps while simultaneously promising responsible and safe development. The platform also features a user-friendly interface coupled with code-first capabilities, including AZD and AI Toolkit for VS Code to promote effectiveness and efficiency. 

OpenAI's GPT-4o makes its way to Azure AI Studio

Last week, OpenAI announced its new flagship GPT-4o model with "GPT-4-level intelligence." The new model was already available in preview in Azure OpenAI Service, allowing developers to use the service to integrate GPT technology into apps.

And now, Microsoft has announced that the model is available as an API in Azure AI Studio. Devs can now leverage its capabilities to integrate text, image, and audio processing into a single model. When coupled with the recently enabled GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, developers can build apps with inputs and outputs that space across text, images, and more for a richer user experience.

Microsoft announces a new multimodal model as part of its lightweight Phi-3 family of AI SMLs

Last month, Microsoft debuted its super-lightweight AI model that's as capable as GPT-3.5, Phi-3 Mini. Now, the company has announced Phi-3-small, Phi-3-medium, and Phi-3-vision, a new multimodal model as part of its Phi-3 family of AI small language models (SLMs).

According to Microsoft:

"Phi-3 models are powerful, cost-effective and optimized for resource constrained environments including on-device, edge, offline inference, and latency bound scenarios where fast response times are critical."

The models also ship with Phi-3-vision which supports general visual reasoning tasks as well as analytical reasoning for charts, graphs, and more. Users can also input images and text into the model and output text responses.

Microsoft has also integrated Phi-3-mini into Azure AI’s Models-as-aService (MaaS) service. Additionally, Microsoft is also bringing new capabilities across APIs to support multimodal experiences. 

Finally, Microsoft is shipping several new features to Azure AI Speech in preview, including speech analytics and universal translation. These features are designed to help developers build high-quality and voice-enabled apps. 

What you need to know

• Each year, NORAD tracks Santa Claus as he travels around the world delivering gifts.
• Microsoft partners with NORAD to help track the festive icon.
• This year, NORADSanta.org has been upgraded to a JavaScript based site with support for nine languages.
• That website is also hosted in six Azure Regions around the world.

'Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the house, not an accessory was stirring, not even a mouse. The GOVEE lights were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. The gamers were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Azure danced in their heads.

In non-poetic terms, that means Microsoft and NORAD (The North American Aerospace Defense Command) have teamed up yet again to help people track Santa Claus as he travels the world delivering gifts. NORAD has tracked Santa each year since 1955, and the tracking has gotten more sophisticated over the decades.

NORADSanta.org is the hub for tracking the festive icon. On December 24, also known as Christmas Eve, the website will swap over to a full-time Santa tracker. Until then, NORADSanta.org has a variety of holiday themed activities, including games and music.

Microsoft explained that its "developer elves" have swapped NORADSanta.org to a JavaScript based website. It now supports nine different languages and is hosted in six Azure Regions around the world.

The changes to the website should result in a faster experience when navigating around. The site is rather straightforward, so there's much to explain or dive into in terms of the end-user experience. Instead, Microsoft broke down how it improved the website using Azure to illustrate to developers how Azure can be used.

If you need to know where Santa is at all times, you can also use the NORAD Tracks Santa app on iOS and Android.

Showcasing Azure

NORADSanta.org serves as a showcase for various Microsoft Azure technologies. The website is an Azure static web app, which can be made with web frameworks like Angular, React, Vue, or Blazor. The site also uses Azure Front Door, which is Microsoft's cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Azure Function, which is a cloud computing service for building, testing, and deploying apps.

Map-based applications can use Azure Maps, and Microsoft shows that off with NORADSanta.org as well.

Since NORAD's Santa tracker is a global site, it's worth a quick look at how Microsoft uses its Azure Maps Platform to create an interactive map:

"Azure Maps is a service that enables you to develop map-based applications with ease, using location data, map visualizations, and spatial operations. You can search, route, track, and discover location-based insights with Azure Maps, and integrate it with the Azure platform and other services. Azure Maps provides a comprehensive set of geospatial services, mapping APIs, and SDKs for web and mobile development"

You can click around an interactive map on NORADSanta.org to learn about holiday traditions from different parts of the world.

What you need to know

• Reportedly, Google has sent a letter to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), petitioning it to take action against business practices Microsoft uses in cloud computing that it views as anticompetitive.
• Specifically, Google argues that Microsoft should not be able to restrict the use of its softwares to Azure, and that it shouldn't cost more to use them with other cloud providers.
• Google included six recommendations in its letter, including a request to force Microsoft to make Azure more interoperable with other cloud providers and one to ensure that security updates won't be blocked for anyone who moves to a new one.
• The UK's communications regulator Ofcom found that Amazon and Microsoft owned a combined 70-80% of the UK cloud computing market in 2022 earlier this year, referring the situation to the CMA for investigation. 

UPDATE Dec. 6 @ 1:37 p.m. ET: Amazon has joined Google in its criticism of Microsoft's business practices in the UK cloud market in a new letter posted on the CMA's website. Like Google, Amazon argues that Microsoft's licensing policies are unfairly anticompetitive.

“To use many of Microsoft’s software products with these other cloud services providers, a customer must purchase a separate license even if they already own the software,” Amazon said. “This often makes it financially unviable for a customer to choose a provider other than Microsoft.”

Our original story follows below.

According to a report, Google has petitioned the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) — the UK's business regulator — to pursue action against Microsoft over business practices in the cloud computing market it views as unfair.

The report indicates that in a letter Google sent to the CMA, it argued that Microsoft Azure licensing policies drive users away from using other providers to an unreasonable degree.

“With Microsoft’s licensing restrictions in particular, UK customers are left with no economically reasonable alternative but to use Azure as their cloud services provider, even if they prefer the prices, quality, security, innovations, and features of rivals,” Google said.

Google, in total, reportedly made six recommendations to the CMA in its letter. One was to demand that Microsoft improve interoperability between Azure and other cloud options, while another was to ensure that the Redmond firm couldn't block software security improvements for anyone that chose to move to a different provider.

Notably, this October, Britain's communications watchdog Ofcom shared its findings that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure had a combined 70-80% of UK cloud computing market share in 2022, with Google following them at 5-10%. Ofcom referred the market to the CMA for further investigation, which began shortly afterward.

In 2022, Microsoft updated its cloud policies in an effort to assuage antitrust concerns. However, these changes did not placate Google, which is taking issue with the fact that some types of Microsoft software aren't compatible with major platforms that rival Azure, and that folks using ones that are are saddled with extra costs.

"On premises, they could run it on any hardware, there was no restriction really," said Google Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery in an interview in June. "But now if you want to run it on any other cloud provider, you have to pay a tax and penalty to Microsoft if it's not running on Azure, or in the preferred providers of their choice."

Even though Amazon controls a larger portion of the market than Microsoft does, Zavery says Google isn't as concerned about AWS since it doesn't enforce the same restrictions.

“There are some issues, in terms of cloud interoperability, but we can fix that. That's a discussion between providers, which is much understood, and customers are forcing that conversation,” he said, speaking to Reuters. “The problem we run into with Microsoft is that there's no technical issue, but you have licensing restrictions which means we are now being prevented from competing.”

What you need to know

• A new report reveals that Microsoft has announced the Secure Future Initiative (SFI) to improve its cybersecurity efforts.
• This is in direct response to growing cybersecurity threats and more frequent attacks and exploits levied against Microsoft services in recent years.
• The initiative will see the company use AI and automation to improve the security and stability of its software development.
• The company will also build an AI-powered cyber shield to detect new threats faster than current methods are able.
• Finally, Microsoft plans to improve security for its customers with more thorough encryption and superior out-of-the-box security options.

Cybersecurity is a real and pervasive threat in our digital world, and Microsoft is a constant target thanks to its influence in cloud, AI, and software. The company has been afflicted by a myriad of cyber attacks in recent months and years, with multiple security flaws and exploits discovered in Microsoft Azure and other cloud products. These dangerous security weaknesses combined with criticism levied against Microsoft's security efforts have clearly driven the company to take substantial action, and that action has been revealed today.

According to a new report from the Verge, Microsoft has announced the Secure Future Initiative (SFI), a three-tier program to improve the company's cybersecurity across all of its products and for all its customers. The initiative is highly driven by AI and automation, and will hopefully see major advancements in cybersecurity for Microsoft (and the industry as a whole).

How is Microsoft using AI in security?

To begin, Microsoft intends to use AI and automation, specifically the CodeQL code analysis engine developed by GitHub and integrated with Copilot. The AI-powered engine will help with static and dynamic code analysis, which Microsoft is calling the dynamic security development lifecycle. It should ideally aid Microsoft's developers in finding and fixing bugs in software and AI development. With this tool, security exploits and flaws will be more reliably found and dealt with before they ever reach customers. 

How is Microsoft using AI to transform software development?

Microsoft is looking to use AI in 3 specific ways. First, the team at Microsoft is looking to transform the way software is developed by using automation and AI. Most cybersecurity engineers and good software developers know that security has to be baked into software as it is developed and can't be tacked on afterward. In 2004, Microsoft coined the term Security Development Lifecycle (SDL). Microsoft is now evolving this idea to dynamic SDL (dSDL). This is done with the hope that AI will allow for better continuous integration and continuous delivery during all phases of the lifecycle.

With the promise to deploy CodeQL for code analysis to 100 percent of commercial products, they hope to use AI to completely eliminate software vulnerabilities in the build phase before the software is ever even pushed to the public. Microsoft also discusses the need to meet customers where they are and work with legacy infrastructure by offering better security controls in all of their products such as with multi-factor authentication.

How is Microsoft using AI to help with identity protection?

The second thing that is being upgraded is the identity protection Microsoft uses. One of the most successful causes of breaches and security incidents is the compromise of a user's credentials. Microsoft wants to make it harder for a malicious actor or criminal operator to log in as a user, even if they somehow were able to get the username and password. They plan to do this by moving identity signing keys to an Azure HSM which will encrypt signing keys while at rest, in transit, and while being used in computational processes. They also promise automated key rotation for better security. They plan on enforcing standard identity libraries across all of Microsoft for better security.

Most of these changes are not only internal to Microsoft but will apply to all of their customers both personal and enterprise; as long as the techniques used are sound and built with both security and convenience in mind, they should be great improvements.

How is Microsoft using AI to respond faster to vulnerabilities?

The final way that Microsoft is planning to utilize AI in its security is through its incident and vulnerability response with rapid updates for the cloud to remediate vulnerabilities. Microsoft is promising with AI, they will be able to cut the time to mitigate cloud vulnerabilities by 50 percent.

Two of the biggest issues facing cybersecurity and corporations today are long detection times and long recovery times. Detection time is how long it takes for a company to realize they have been compromised or breached.

Recovery time is how long it takes to get their network and devices back to a pre-compromised state. As we can see with the recent Boeing breach, many times the ransomware group has to tell the companies that they have been breached. Unfortunately, detection time can be upwards of several months. Recovery on the other hand can take even longer, usually causing significant business costs from loss of revenue and needing to hire third-party specialists for incident response.

Microsoft is promising that the help of Microsoft Security Copilot will allow incident responders to act with "machine speed" as they battle threat actors and attempt to repel attacks.

Why is Microsoft using AI for security?

Microsoft has decided to integrate AI so completely into their entire company, that at its core the software, security protections, and even incident response will be completely saturated with AI logic and potentially its fallacies. However, Microsoft was stuck between a rock and a hard place and AI was one way it thought it could escape.

This is a needed evolution for Microsoft as they have been the target and at the center of several high-profile security incidents and breaches over the last few years. Microsoft has been attacked by Chinese hackers, Russian hackers were able to compromise Microsoft Teams, DDOS attacks have been used to disrupt Office 365, and a Microsoft breach affected 65,000 people in 111 countries. These are just some of the issues it has had to deal with in recent memory.

Do you think Microsoft should be trusting AI with its security? Do you think AI can deliver on all of these promises made by Microsoft? Let us know in the comments.

An interesting report from Wired recently detailed the latest community Microsoft seems to have upset, and it's somewhat unexpected. 

The report opens with a recount of a confrontation between a Dutch councilor and a Microsoft sub-contracted security guard. Local councilor Lars Ruiter appeared on site at a half-completed Microsoft data center being built in the Netherlands, as part of Microsoft's global expansion of the Azure footprint. Microsoft's business increasingly revolves around cloud servers and other cloud-based technologies, and building these kinds of data centers as locally as possible is imperative to meet demand. The further away you physically are from cloud data centers, generally speaking, the worse the service provision is. The most extreme example of this is Xbox Cloud Gaming, whose game streaming provision degrades quite markedly the further away from a data center you are. It's fine generally when working with more simple data transfer protocols like file sharing, but the demand for more, well, demanding cloud provision is increasing. Services like ChatGPT which power Bing Chat reportedly cost over half a million dollars to run per day. 

"We regret an interaction that took place outside our data center campus, apparently involving one of Microsoft’s subcontractors," a Microsoft statement reads, referring to the altercation between Ruiter and a Microsoft security guard. 

A report from JAS Foundation (machine translated), describes how the security guard allegedly put his hand around Ruiter's throat. "At the time it happened, I was so full of adrenaline that it even made me laugh a little. But once I got back in the car, I started shaking for a while." [...] When the man got close to Rider, he grabbed him by the throat for a few seconds. "The American journalist who was with me also thought his reaction was greatly exaggerated. That traffic controller was really over the top."

Ruiter has been spear-heading local anger against so-called "hyperscale" data center projects such as those seen in the Netherlands, which will house potentially thousands of servers for all sorts of businesses and systems, including Microsoft's own. The contention revolves around building permits, which some locals feel Microsoft has won unfairly. Reportedly, the Netherlands has been curtailing local farmers as part of efforts to reduce nitrogen emissions, which are four times higher than the European average according to Wired's data. Microsoft's data center building efforts seem to have become emblematic of an erosion of farmers' rights and by extension, livelihoods, putting Azure in the cross hairs. 

Cloud demands are set to increase

As Microsoft's cloud ambitions grow across gaming, AI, and other services, the chances of it running afoul of local issues like this is also set to increase. Microsoft's carbon footprint is also up for debate as they grow these kinds of operations, particularly as other industries are asked to scale back as cloud demands grow. 

Striking a balance between cloud demands and the needs of locals potentially impacted by these so-called hyperscale projects will be potentially tough as Microsoft's ambitions swell. 

What you need to know

• Microsoft recently released a Linux distribution for Azure server environments.
• The Azure Linux Container host was designed to be lightweight, secure, and reliable.
• While Azure Linux container host for AKS is built for servers and not desktops, it is still noteworthy that Microsoft made its own Linux distribution.

Yes, in a typical Microsoft naming fashion, the title of Microsoft's first Linux Distribution isn't "Fedora" or "Ubuntu," but rather something very descriptive. While technically a Linux distribution, it is not intended for desktop use but rather serves a specialized role in Azure server environments.

To provide some context, Kubernetes is a tool that helps manage and deploy applications in a more efficient way. It helps developers focus on writing code rather than worrying about the underlying infrastructure. Previously, it would be normal for developers to either learn how to set up a server, a database, and a lot more besides just focusing on coding or to have a dedicated person in-house who would set it all up for them.

Many years later, developers can now pull up a few "LEGO" pieces together as Kubernetes's containers, and voila, the system is ready for development. Naturally, both the containers (Docker) and the Kubernetes orchestration engine also need to sit on something, namely an operating system, and that is where Linux is needed.

The newly named Azure Linux Container host is a barebone Linux distribution completely made in-house by Microsoft and is specialized for use on Azure. Key points are lightweight, secure, and reliable. While this is another big step for Azure, don't expect a desktop Linux distribution from Microsoft anytime soon.

For a thorough breakdown, check out Microsoft's full introduction to the Azure Linux container host for AKS.

What you need to know

• CMGE signed a framework agreement with Microsoft to use Azure OpenAI and other Microsoft services to improve games.
• AI will be used to improve CMGE's R&D efforts and enhance gaming experiences through features such as "intelligent NPC interaction."
• Sword and Fairy World will be the first CMGE title to utilize Microsoft's AI cloud technology.

Chinese gaming company CMGE just signed a framework agreement with Microsoft to use Azure OpenAI and other cloud technology from the Redmond-based tech giant. CMGE largely focuses on phone and mobile games, which will be enhanced with big data and Microsoft's GPT-related technologies.

CMGE announced the news and shared details about the deal (quote translated by Bing):

"In the future, CMGE's main game products will be connected to Azure OpenAI services in compliance and apply its large-model capabilities to the company's game product development and operation in the future, so as to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and also bring players a richer game experience."

In addition to using AI to improve R&D efficiency, CMGE explained that it will use Azure OpenAI to create "intelligent NPC interaction" and to improve the player experience.

The first game from CMGE to utilize Microsoft's technology will be "Sword and Fairy World," which is an open-world martial arts game in the metaverse. The game will be available on PC and mobile platforms.

Microsoft is a massive company with several divisions, but it's noteworthy that the tech giant continues to sign Azure deals with gaming companies in China while Chinese regulators look at Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard.

Florian Mueller, who founded the FOSS Patents blog, reported that "China's antitrust regulator #SAMR has stopped the clock to give #Microsoft and #ActivisionBlizzard more time to respond to cloud gaming complaints." Mueller added that Google and NetEase are believed to be complainants, though Google declined to confirm that. His tweet on the subject was shared back in April.

Blizzard ended its licensing agreement with NetEase, which resulted in several Blizzard games being suspended in China earlier this year.

In a new blog post, Microsoft waxed lyrical about its massive Azure cloud, scaled up to meet the specific demands of OpenAI. 

A few years ago, Microsoft entered into a massive partnership with OpenAI, a team at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence research. The company, perhaps ironically named now, entered into something of a closed partnership with the tech giant. The collaboration has led to an AI arms race that has seen Google's own rushed efforts become the subject of some ridicule in recent weeks. The threat to Google's search dominance is unlike anything the company has faced in decades, and Microsoft isn't taking this opportunity lying down. 

To that end, Microsoft today claimed that ChatGPT and other OpenAI models are only possible with its own Azure cloud, which has been rapidly and massively scaled up to meet OpenAI's needs. 

"Only Microsoft Azure provides the GPUs, the InfiniBand networking, and the unique AI infrastructure necessary to build these types of transformational AI models at scale, which is why OpenAI chose to partner with Microsoft,” said Scott Guthrie, EVP of AI and Cloud at Microsoft. "Azure really is the place now to develop and run large transformational AI workloads.

Microsoft discussed the challenges of industrializing AI, which went from lab work and niche use cases to commercialization at scale quite rapidly over the last few months. To that end, Microsoft's Nidhi Chappell, head of product for Azure high-performance computing, described the need to build something that could train AI models more rapidly. "There was definitely a strong push to get bigger models trained for a longer period of time, which means not only do you need to have the biggest infrastructure, you have to be able to run it reliably for a long period of time."

To that end, Microsoft teamed up with NVIDIA, linking together thousands of NVIDIA A100 GPUs leveraging the firm's proprietary 400 GB/s Quantum-2 Infiniband networking technology. Working together, these GPUs can process and create inference and context for absolutely vast amounts of data — the kind of data needed to take the dumb chatbots of yesteryear to the eerily natural-sounding responses we see on Bing Chat and ChatGPT today.  

Microsoft is speeding up its transformation to an AI-first company, integrating OpenAI tech in virtually all of its products. Word, Github, Visual Studio, and many more tools offered by the company are getting at least some form of AI integration to speed up workflows and make life easier. 

The excitement around AI and its potential to enhance civilization has been flanked by concerns about how it could lead to job losses, accelerate the quality and dissemination of false news, and aid nefarious actors in committing all sorts of cyber crimes. Like any new technology revolution, there will be winners and losers, but it remains to be seen just how many winners, and how many losers Microsoft's AI tech will create. Will AI enhance the lives of ordinary people, or simply enhance inequality? Either way, the latest experiment in industrial technology continues unabated. 

What you need to know

• Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure OpenAI Service as part of its partnership with OpenAI.
• More businesses can now apply for access to GPT-3.5, Codex, DALL-E 2, and other AI models.
• Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella shared that "every product of Microsoft will have some of the same AI capabilities" in the future.

Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service is now generally available, allowing more businesses to request access to the tool. The expansion, which was shared by Microsoft early this week, comes as part of the tech giant's ongoing partnership with OpenAI. Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI, committing $1 billion to it in 2019. The company has since continued to work closely with the growing AI company. Recent reports said that Microsoft is considering an additional $10 billion investment in OpenAI.

OpenAI is behind the popular ChatGPT that has appeared in several headlines over the past few months. That chatbot made AI more accessible to general consumers and sprung artificial intelligence into the mainstream. While AI certainly isn't new, OpenAI, ChatGPT, and other tools such as Microsoft's DALL-E 2 have brought more focus to the technology.

In the near future, customers will also be able to access ChatGPT through Azure OpenAI Service.

Nadella also discussed the importance of embracing AI tools:

"The best way to prepare for it is not to bet against this technology, and this technology helping you in your job and your business process. I think they’ll be able to write great articles in the future relying on GPT."

As is the case with most technologies, there are security and ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence. AI could be used for malicious purposes, such as scamming people or creating harmful malware or other forms of software. To combat this, Microsoft has several layers of protection.

All developers are required to apply for access to Azure OpenAI Service. Microsoft has a Limited Access Framework in place to restrict access to its AI tools as well. There are also content filters in place to catch "abusive, hateful, and offensive content."

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella talked about the future of AI tools at a Wall Street Journal panel at the World Economic Forum's event on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. The company plans to commercialize OpenAI tools. Nadella also discussed how AI tools will roll out to more Microsoft products in the future.

"Every product of Microsoft will have some of the same AI capabilities to completely transform the product," said the CEO.

What you need to know

• Applications are now open for Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2023.
• The global competition allows teams to submit projects that use Microsoft Azure technologies.
• The winning team will receive $100,000, Azure credits, and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.

Each year Microsoft hosts the Imagine Cup, a competition designed to show what can be done with the tech giant's Azure technologies. Students from around the world may enter the competition. Projects from Chile, India, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Thailand, and the United States have already been submitted this year and applications can still be made through Microsoft's website. Those participating in online semifinals have until January 27, 2023 to submit their projects.

Imagine Cup has four categories for projects: Earth, Education, Health, and Lifestyle. Microsoft's most recent post on the competition explains that this year's competitors will also be pushed on the entrepreneurial side of things by proposing projects as business ideas.

Microsoft shared that many gaming projects have already been submitted from around the world. "Their projects range from new games to fit different lifestyles to educational games that will inspire young students to learn more about climate change, teach young drivers the rules of the road, or increase interest in studying technology," said Allison Bokone, Microsoft Director of Game Dev Content & Channels.

The winning team will be announced in May 2023. That team will receive a $100,000 grand prize, a Microsoft Azure grant, and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.

V Bionic won the Imagine Cup 2022 for their project ExoHeal, a robotic exoskeleton the helps patients recover from hand paralysis. The team members shared their experiences since winning the event in Microsoft's blog post.

"The mentorship session with Satya Nadella, which was such a bonus as a prize, was one of the most cherished and valuable moments for us," said Zain Samdani, the original creator of ExoHeal.

"It was so inspiring to meet with him. His guidance, advice, and support for our startup instilled us with hope. His encouragement and life experiences were invaluable. We are humbled we had the opportunity to meet him."

Developer Ramin Udash is also part of the ExoHeal project. They reiterated the importance of the mentorship sessions from Microsoft:

One of the most crucial parts of our Imagine Cup journey was the mentorship sessions. They helped us identify problems and solutions within our project, and really helped us refine everything about our ideas. As we progressed in the competition, we also had several reactor sessions and different rehearsals where we got feedback on pitching our product idea.

What you need to know

• Microsoft and the London Stock Exchange Group announced a 10-year partnership.
• As part of the agreement, the London Stock Exchange Group will migrate to the Microsoft Cloud and spend a minimum of $2.8 billion on cloud-related products and services.
• Microsoft will purchase approximately a 4% equity stake in the London Stock Exchange Group.

Microsoft and the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) just announced a 10-year partnership that includes Microsoft acquiring approximately a 4% equity stake in LSEG and the group moving its data infrastructure to the Microsoft Cloud. The two organizations will also co-develop new products and services for data and analytics. 

As part of the agreement, LSEG will migrate its “data platform and other key technology infrastructure” to Microsoft Azure. Additionally, LSEG’s data and analytics solution Workspace” will become interoperable with select Microsoft applications. 

LSEG customers will be able to communicate using Microsoft Teams. They’ll be able to create financial models and run data analysis with Microsoft Excel as well. 

“Our partnership will bring together the industry leadership of the London Stock Exchange Group with the trust and breadth of the Microsoft Cloud — spanning Azure, AI, and Teams — to build next-generation services that will empower our customers to generate business insights, automate complex and time-consuming processes, and ultimately, do more with less,” said Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.

David Schwimmer, the CEO of LSEG, also commented on the agreement. 

“This strategic partnership is a significant milestone on LSEG’s journey towards becoming the leading global financial markets infrastructure and data business, and will transform the experience for our customers.” 

He continued, “we are delighted to welcome Microsoft as a shareholder. We believe our partnership with Microsoft will transform the way our customers discover, analyze, and trade securities around the world, and create substantial value over time. We look forward to delivering on that potential.” 

LSEG will spend a minimum of $2.8 billion on cloud-related spending throughout the partnership. Microsoft’s announcement of the agreement explained that the cloud spending by LSEG will lean toward the second half of the 10-year deal. 

What you need to know

• Microsoft announced a new way for independent game developers to gain access to powerful tools often used by larger studios.
• Starting today, ID@Azure members can apply to be members of the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub and receive benefits of both programs.
• Microsoft's ID@Azure launched earlier this year and can be used to create games for consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.

Earlier this year, Microsoft launched ID@Azure, which is a program that helps independent game studios gain access to tools used by much larger gaming companies. ID@Azure can be used to develop games for consoles, PCs, and mobile devices and has been used by hundreds of developers since its launch, according to Microsoft. Today, it was announced that ID@Azure will join forces with the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub to expand the resources available to game developers.

ID@Azure allows game developers to use PlayFab services for free (with limits). PlayFab is a backend platform for live games that lets developers implement and manage multiplayer features like in-game chat, leaderboards, and in-game currencies.

Similarly to ID@Azure, the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub allows smaller organizations to use tools and benefits that are common among larger studios. Founders Hub members can use Visual Studio Enterprise, GitHub Enterprise, PowerBI Pro, and Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams.

Members of the Founders Hub also receive benefits from Microsoft partners, such as Miro and OpenAI.

Starting today, ID@Azure members can apply for the Founders Hub. Those that qualify will receive the benefits of both programs. They'll also get an additional $1,000 of Azure credits and potentially unlock up to $150,000 credits. The previous maximum was $5,000.

Microsoft highlighted a few titles that use ID@Azure and PlayFab services. Turbo Golf Racing and You Suck at Parking! made their way to Xbox Game Pass and Homeworld Mobile released on tablets and phones.

What could possibly go wrong!? Well, probably nothing really (maybe?)

Today, Microsoft and NVIDIA announced a multi-year partnership to develop a new type of AI cloud computer for Azure customers, powered by NVIDIA GPU tech.

Leveraging "tens of thousands" of NVIDIA GPUs, Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking at 400 Gb/s, and NVIDIA's nascent AI platform, the two firms are aiming to speed up the rollout and development of AI-based tools and apps powered by NVIDIA's tech and Microsoft's cloud footprint. This is the first time NVIDIA will have made the full stack of its cloud AI infrastructure available to the public, in partnership with Microsoft Azure. 

With NVIDIA bringing its hardware clout to the table, Azure is bringing its unique blend of global scalability in virtual machine instances, which NVIDIA says will help speed up the training and deployment of all sorts of AI tools. NVIDIA says foundational models like Megatron Turing NLG 530B will see rapid advancement under the program, with the goal of developing "unsupervised" self-learning algorithms for building code, text, digital imagery, audio, and video. NVIDIA and Microsoft will also collaborate on Microsoft's own DeepSpeed algorithmic refinement platform, which is designed to help AI instances self-learn more rapidly. 

Scott Guthrie, EVP at Microsoft for Cloud + AI hailed the partnership, as the firms collaborate to explore the next wave in automated industry. "AI is fueling the next wave of automation across enterprises and industrial computing, enabling organizations to do more with less as they navigate economic uncertainties. Our collaboration with NVIDIA unlocks the world’s most scalable supercomputer platform, which delivers state-of-the-art AI capabilities for every enterprise on Microsoft Azure.”

Microsoft's interest in developing AI platforms has been increasing exponentially in recent years. Microsoft has internal teams across the entirety of its portfolio exploring ways to incorporate AI self-learning algorithms across practically every product group. We've seen Copilot programming editing appear in GitHub and Visual Studio. We've heard how AI can enhance and speed up Xbox and PC video game development, handing off intensive tasks to AI. We've also seen piles of creepy AI-generated images that, while fun, also raise a question of copyright theft, given that AI train themselves using real-world art. 

Indeed, as Microsoft's investments in the space grow, there will doubtless be teething problems of every stripe. From copyright claims on content used to train algorithms, to morality questions over AI behavior. There are also hard questions about AI and automation putting the human labor force out of work as well. And hey, there's always the chance the AI cloud computer becomes sentient and takes over the world, right? Well, maybe not. 

However it all goes, it seems like Microsoft is poised to be on the cutting edge of this nascent tech, along with its enterprise partners on Azure. 

What you need to know

• Ongoing supply chain disruptions around the world are affecting the availability of products in various industries.
• On Monday, Microsoft announced the Supply Chain Platform, an initiative to help combat these disruptions.
• The Supply Chain Platform leverages AI and machine learning, Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, and more to provide a plethora of tools to companies.
• The service aims to support companies in intelligently avoiding disruptions with agility and sustainability.

Multiple industries have experienced tumultuous seasons in years past, due to cascading effects leading to supply chain disruptions and difficulties. Effectively and efficiently managing a supply chain from end-to-end is vital for any company, but it's also a monumental task that requires peerless communication, foresight, and a constant overview of an absurd amount of data. On Monday, Microsoft announced its latest enterprise-centric service to aid companies with all of this and more.

The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform leverages AI and machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure, data management and syncing, Dynamics 365 tools and resources, Microsoft Teams communications, and more to help companies be smarter, more agile, and more sustainable when managing their supply chains. In addition to combining and elevating various services Microsoft already offers to its partners, the Supply Chain Platform is also backed by the Supply Chain Center at its core, which will make it significantly easier for partners to use the initiative's various resources alongside their existing supply chain systems.

Companies like Kraft-Heinz and FedEx, which are launch partners for Microsoft's latest service, will be able sync and manage all of the data for their supply chain from one system, without fear of outdated reports or missing information. Advanced AI will be able to predict upcoming disruptions, constraints, and shortages using historical data, current events, and simulations. Volume orders and supply chain tasks can be automated to avoid oversight. Teams can be used to confer with suppliers and partners with ease. Supply Chain Platform partners can create custom supply chain solutions for customers, while modules can integrate existing custom solutions into the wider platform.

The Supply Chain Platform aims to alleviate the consequences of lapsed communication, incomplete data, simple human error, and the layered effects of outdated systems running on top of outdated systems. When considering the complexity of supply chains, even the smallest mistake can lead to cascading consequences down the line, resulting in shortages, delays, and more. Microsoft's latest services wants to empower companies using existing Microsoft technologies to be more efficient and intelligent.

The initiative also takes into account sustainability, with customers able to leverage the platform to make decisions on more efficient routing and transportation, more sustainable package and processes, automation for warehouses and transportation, better product sourcing, and more. Microsoft is continuing to focus heavily on sustainability and productivity, as outlined by CEO Satya Nadella, and the Supply Chain Platform continues to lean into that objective.

The Supply Chain Center is now entering preview with Microsoft's partners, and will likely roll out to more companies over the coming months and years. Managing supply chains has long been one of the greatest challenges facing companies, and the Supply Chain Platform will, hopefully, reduce the hardship of that challenge. Ordering that new Windows laptop could be easier and more painless, should Microsoft succeed in its goal.

What you need to know

• Dev Box, a new cloud computing environment for developers based on the same tech used by Windows 365, was announced earlier this year at Build 2022.
• Microsoft recently announced that a preview version of Dev Box is now available for the public to test out.
• Users can access the Dev Box preview through the Azure Portal.

Microsoft took the wraps off of its new cloud-based Dev Box computing environment at Build 2022, and it has now launched a preview version of the service for the public to test out. Developers can use Dev Box to create effectively create cloud-based workstations with enough power to handle any task.

As Senior Editor Zac Bowden explained in his initial announcement post, Dev Box is "built off of the same tech Windows 365 is based upon," meaning it can essentially be used on any PC from anywhere in the world. All users need to do is sign in through the Azure Portal in a browser and get to work.

As stated by Microsoft in the official Dev Box preview announcement, the environment offers broad support for any Windows IDE or SDK; in fact, any tool that can run on Windows will run in the cloud. Dev Box allows for cross-platform app building, and it can be accessed from pretty much any device or browser as long as you have an internet connection. Virtual environments with up to 32 virtual CPUs and 128GB of RAM are available, though you can drop down to 4 virtual CPUs and 16GB of RAM for less demanding tasks.

Dev boxes are deployed in the nearest region that Azure operates and connect via the Azure Global Network complete with Gigabit connections. From there, IT admins have the ability to give individual access to code and data, helping prevent unsecure handling.

Microsoft points out that users and their organizations will only pay for what they use within the Dev Box environment. As of August 15, a preview version of Dev Box is available to the public with the first 15 hours of an octa-vCPU with 32GB RAM SKU available for free every month. This also comes with 365 free hours of 512GB storage. Users are charged based on how many hours they use the CPUs and storage thereafter.

If you'd like to give Dev Box a shot, just sign into the Azure Portal and do a quick search for "Dev Box." Microsoft's dedicated Dev Box page has a lot more information to check out.

What you need to know

• Unity selected Microsoft Azure as its cloud partner to create and power real-time 3D experience.
• The partnership will help build experiences in gaming and non-gaming scenarios, such as e-commerce, manufacturing, and medicine.
• Game creators will have an easier path to bringing Unity games to Xbox and PC as a result of the partnership as well.

Microsoft and Unity announced a new partnership today that will help build real-time 3D (RT3D) experiences by utilizing the cloud. Unity announced that Azure will be its cloud partner, and Microsoft shared details about how the companies will work together.

Several of the best PC games and best Xbox games already utilize Azure, and the lessons learned from those titles should help deliver better experiences inside and outside of the gaming industry.

"The magic of 3D interactive experiences born in games is quickly moving to non-gaming worlds. Unity is building a platform-agnostic, cloud-native solution that meets the wide-ranging needs of all developers from enterprise through citizen creators," said Microsoft CVP of Game Creator Experiences and Ecosystem Sarah Bond. "By giving creators easy access to RT3D simulation tools and the ability to create digital twins of real-world places and objects, Unity is offering creators an easy path to production of RT3D assets, whether for games or non-gaming worlds."

Developers and 3D artists will be able to use Azure and the Unity engine to create experiences for a variety of sectors, including energy, e-commerce, manufacturing, and medicine.

Microsoft and Unity working together should also help game developers. 

"The partnership between Microsoft and Unity will also enable Made with Unity game creators to more easily reach their players across Windows and Xbox devices and unlock new success opportunities," said Bond. "By engineering improved developer tools, leveraging the latest platform innovation from silicon to cloud, and simplifying the publishing experience, Unity creators will be able to realize their dreams by bringing their games to more gamers around the world."

Have you ever wondered just how far the global Microsoft operation spreads? Well, wonder no more, thanks to this new interactive 3D map from the company. 

In recent years, cloud tech has become Microsoft's bread and butter, powered by Azure and an array of associated services. Whether you're a business building applications in the cloud or a consumer using a service like Office 365 or Xbox Cloud Gaming, practically every Microsoft service has some kind of cloud association in 2022, and likely will for the foreseeable future. 

If you're someone who ever wondered just how close you are to a Microsoft data center, this fun and interactive 3D tool on the official Azure website can help you to visualize it. 

The map shows just how far the global Microsoft operation reaches, complete with undersea cables and satellite operations in three dimensions. The key on the top left gives you an idea of what all the icons mean. It shows the spread of data centers throughout the United States and across Europe, as well as into Asia. It also shows a range of geographies labeled as "coming soon," with plans to expand into emerging economies in Africa, as well as build up operations in the Middle East. 

Interestingly, the map also showcases some of Microsoft's climate investments. You can click into the various icons to get more information on regional privacy compliance standards, and the climate sites showcase the type of investment, as well as the megawatts generated. It perhaps doesn't show everything, though. For some reason, it doesn't show Microsoft's Climworks investment in Iceland, which is exploring carbon capture technology as part of the company's commitment to carbon neutrality.

The interactive map showcases just how massive the Azure operation truly is, particularly when you take into account the plans for expansion. Microsoft's cloud dominance is extending even in a tough economy, with the company confirming cloud growth for its most recent financial quarter to the tune of $23.4 billion.

What you need to know

• In 2021, Microsoft and Grafana Labs announced plans to make Grafana natively compatible with Azure.
• Azure Managed Grafana, the aforementioned native solution, is now available in preview.
• Grafana is designed to provide convenient and easy visualization of telemetry data from a variety of sources.

Azure users with telemetry data in need of convenient, consolidated visualization need look no further than Grafana, a one-stop-shop interface designed to convey information from multiple sources in a concise, easy-to-read format. And now, Grafana has the benefit of native integration with Azure.

Grafana and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership back in 2021, stating a native solution would be on the way. And now, in April 2022, here we are, with the goods delivered via Azure Managed Grafana, which is available in preview.

Here's how Microsoft describes Azure Managed Grafana in its blog post: "The Grafana application lets users easily visualize all their telemetry data in a single user interface. With Grafana's extensible architecture, users can visualize and correlate multiple data sources across on-premises, Azure, and multi-cloud environments. Azure Managed Grafana particularly optimizes this experience for Azure-native data stores such as Azure Monitor and Data Explorer thus making it easy for customers to connect to any resource in their subscription and view all resulting telemetry in a familiar Grafana dashboard."

Charts from the Azure portal can be easily migrated to the new service, and there will be a variety of built-in dashboards to help maximize the Azure Monitor information you can get at a glance.

This is one of many ways Microsoft is enhancing and supporting Azure. Between this, Azure's various endeavors in space, and the ID@Azure program for small game developers, there's a lot of cloud-based opportunity being shared around.

What you need to know

• Microsoft is serious about getting its technologies woven into a multitude of space-focused projects.
• Microsoft has collaborations with NASA, is developing solutions for the International Space Station (ISS), and more.
• The company recently announced a comprehensive spread of its current off-planet initiatives.

If you thought Microsoft's various cloud endeavors were useful down here on the ground, you don't know the half of it; the company's blasting off Team Rocket-style to bring the power of Azure and AI to the stars.

Microsoft whipped up a comprehensive blog post detailing the big-ticket items actively being worked on. Included in the current lineup of initiatives:

• NASA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are testing AI at the ultimate edge for Astronaut Safety.
• New partnerships are bringing development capabilities to on-orbit compute.
• Unlocking new on-orbit climate data applications with Thales Alenia Space (TAS).
• Developing new technologies with Loft Orbital to demonstrate re-taskable satellite functions and seamless connectivity to the terrestrial cloud.
• Demonstrating reconfigurable on-orbit compute and AI processing with Ball Aerospace.
• Rapidly analyzing spaceborne data with the new reference architecture for Azure Orbital with Azure Synapse.
• Empowering analysts with newly integrated Blackshark.ai geospatial models are available with Azure Orbital.

Some of those are self-explanatory, but others require a bit of explanation. For example, "Astronaut Safety" refers to the joint effort by HPE, NASA, and Microsoft to enable solutions for automatically detecting damage to astronaut equipment. That includes glove monitors since, as told by Microsoft, astronaut gloves are at risk of getting cut by glass-like micrometeorite shards and all of the surfaces said shards carve knife-like sharp edges into. It's crazy stuff!

Microsoft's also helping up the quality of satellite imagery with AI, working with Thales Alenia Space on "Earth Observation sensors" to help process climate data, and partnering with Loft Orbital to cook up new Azure-based apps for space systems. If you want a deep dive into Microsoft's activities, go check out its posts that explore the deeper aspects of the current projects, but otherwise, just know that while other cloud services say the sky's the limit, Microsoft seems keen to take its products as far out as possible.

In more down-to-Earth cloud news, Microsoft's partnering with Boeing to help update the latter company's infrastructure.

What you need to know

• Azure Virtual Machines now have preview support for Ampere Altra Arm-based processors.
• Microsoft stated that Azure VMs using Arm deliver "up to 50 percent better price-performance than comparable x86-based VMs."
• Preview support is currently available for VMs running Canonical Ubuntu Linux, CentOS, and Windows 11 Professional and Enterprise Edition on Arm.

Microsoft recently added preview support for Azure virtual machines using Arm-based processors. The new virtual machines use Altra Arm-based processors and should deliver better value than existing VMs on the market. Microsoft explained in its post announcing preview support that Arm-based VMs should get up to 50% better price-performance than x86-based virtual machines. Ampere also shared a blog post on the news.

"We see companies using Arm based architectures as a way of reducing both cost and energy consumption," said Canonical Vice President of Public Cloud Alexander Gallagher. "It's a huge step forward for those looking to develop with Linux on Azure and we are pleased to partner with Microsoft to offer Ubuntu images."

The director of PM for Azure Host OS and the Windows OS platform, Hari Pulapaka, took to Twitter to discuss the news.

At the moment, preview support is available for virtual machines running Canonical Ubuntu Linux, CentOS, and Windows 11 Professional and Enterprise Edition on Arm. Other operating systems, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Debian, AlmaLinux, and Flatcar, will work with the VMs in the future.

What you need to know

• Microsoft launched its free ID@Azure program, which aims to help game developers use the cloud.
• ID@Azure is a platform-agnostic tool that can be used to develop games for console, PC, mobile devices, and virtual reality.
• Microsoft also announced the Azure Game Development Virtual Machine, which provides a remote workstation for game development.

Playing games through the cloud is becoming more common these days, as is developing games through the cloud. Microsoft made several announcements today about tools that will help developers leverage the cloud, work remotely, and use cloud services to enhance gaming.

After a private testing period, Microsoft has made the ID@Azure program generally available. It's a platform-agnostic tool that lets developers create games for console, PC, mobile devices, and virtual reality. Being part of the program gets developers a free Azure PlayFab standard plan, which provides access to PlayFab Party services, Live Ops party services, and other tools.

Microsoft also announced the Azure Game Development Virtual Machine. It provides a pre-built Game Development Virtual Machine in Azure that has several development tools pre-installed. Using the Azure Game Development Virtual Machine should reduce some of the time and costs associated with setting up test systems for game development.

Launch of ID@Azure

ID@Azure is a new program from Microsoft that aims to help game developers use the cloud. It comes with several resources and can be used to create games on a variety of platforms.

"The goal of ID@Azure is to empower independent developers," explained Nick Ferguson, the program director of ID@Azure. "We want you to take advantage of the same services and capabilities used by large teams building some of the most popular games today, many of which are powered by Azure to reach millions of players."

Doom Eternal, Minecraft, Halo Infinite, and many of the best Xbox games use Azure. Now, Microsoft wants smaller studios to use the cloud service as well.

Microsoft will provide ID@Azure program members up to $5,000 in Azure credits. All developers will be able to get $500 of credits, but that figure can go up as devs work with Microsoft on specific projects.

Microsoft will also give developers access to a PlayFab Standard Plan for up to two years, which normally costs $99 per month. That includes $400 of monthly meters over PlayFab's Free To Start pricing plan. ID@Azure members will also get access to PlayFab Party Networking, Party Voice & Chat, PlayFab Matchmaking, and PlayFab Lobby.

Microsoft expects PlayFab services to be free for 95% of multiplayer games and most ID@Azure members.

Azure Game Development Virtual Machine

Microsoft's Azure Game Development Virtual Machine is now in public preview. It should make it easier for game creators to jump into development. The tool provides a remote workstation that comes with many game development solutions pre-installed.

Because Unreal Engine, Blender, DirectX, and some of the most popular solutions are pre-installed in the Azure Game Development Virtual Machine, game developers can have a server ready to go in minutes. With the solutions already available, studios don't need to have specialty hardware onsite or to use the same centralized server to collaborate.

Below are all of the solutions currently available through the Azure Game Development Virtual Machine:

• Visual Studio Community Edition 2019
• Unreal Engine
• Quixel Bridge
• Perforce's P4V Client
• Parsec
• Incredibuild
• Blender
• Teradici
• DirectX/GDK/PlayFab SDKs and more

Azure Game Development Virtual Machine integrates with Azure PlayFab, allowing developers to use two of Microsoft's cloud-centric solutions together.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has released a blog post detailing the AI models powering its latest innovations for Translator and Azure AI.
• These new models utilize NVIDIA GPUs, which segues into Microsoft's other recent news about collaborating with NVIDIA.
• The new models are helping to improve Translator's translation quality, leading to better outputs of varying degrees depending on the languages involved.

Microsoft's utilizing a new family of AI models dubbed Z-code, which provides the quality and performance of large-scale language models with the added benefit of greater efficiency.

"With Z-code we are really making amazing progress because we are leveraging both transfer learning and multitask learning from monolingual and multilingual data to create a state-of-the-art language model that we believe has the best combination of quality, performance and efficiency that we can provide to our customers," said Xuedong Huang, Microsoft technical fellow and Azure AI chief technology officer.

Part of what makes Z-code special is its ability to derive solutions from model portions rather than the entire thing, which makes Z-code usage scalable and efficient. It's being utilized within Azure AI via the Microsoft Translator app, wherein it's helping expand the capabilities of Translator for less common languages and helping improve results of even the most common translation requests for popular languages such as English and French.

For specific numbers on how the model family is helping Microsoft, here are hard figures the company provided regarding Z-code's effects on translation: "The models improved English to French translations by 3.2 %, English to Turkish by 5.8 %, Japanese to English by 7.6%, English to Arabic by 9.3% and English to Slovenian by 15%."

In other words, should you want to translate anything to or from English, the odds are Z-code is going to help that process. For more technical details on AI models, check out Microsoft's blog posts on the subject. And if you want to know more about the NVIDIA GPUs helping power these innovations, there's news on that too.

What you need to know

• Microsoft will offer cloud-based access to Pasqal's quantum computers through Azure Quantum.
• Pasqal's system will be the first quantum processor to use neutral atom architecture through Azure.
• Using neutral atoms allows the creation of full-stack processors that can scale and deliver high connectivity.

Microsoft and Pasqal announced a new partnership that will improve quantum computing. Microsoft will provide cloud-based access to Pasqal's quantum computers that use neutral atoms. Once the resulting system of the partnership is completed, it will be the first quantum processor to use neutral atom architecture through Azure.

Neutral atoms, which have an equal number of electrons and neutrons, can be used to create full-stack processors that scale well. These types of processors also deliver high connectivity. Pasqal highlights that the tech can run at room temperature while using relatively little energy.

"Azure Quantum is a unified, open cloud ecosystem for quantum innovation, empowering customers to achieve impact with a diverse selection of quantum hardware, software, and solutions," said Distinguished Engineer, VP Quantum Software of Microsoft Dr. Krysta Svore.

"Pasqal's neutral atoms quantum processors are a welcome addition to that ecosystem, providing Azure Quantum users with new computational possibilities, including analog quantum computation, opening up new avenues for pursuing real-world quantum impacts."

Pasqal's goal is to ship a 1000-qubit quantum processor by the end of 2023. A qubit is a unit of quantum information used to calculate the power of quantum computers.

"Running algorithms on Pasqal's neutral-atom hardware opens the door to unique capabilities no other quantum system offers," said CEO and founder of Pasqal Georges-Olivier Reymond.

"With the availability of our system via Azure Quantum, we hope to accelerate the quantum programs of the platform's community of quantum developers and researchers and ultimately help them achieve real-world solutions to the world's most critical challenges."

In a related story, Microsoft recently took a major step toward making a topological qubit. This technology should pave the way for the creation of even more powerful quantum computers.

What you need to know

• SpecterOps has added support for Microsoft Azure to BloodHound Enterprise.
• BloodHound Enterprise is an Attack Path Management security solution for securing Active Directory.
• Many organizations use Active Directory, including banks, government agencies, retailers, and businesses.

Microsoft Azure is now supported by BloodHound Enterprise, an Attack Path Management security solution. The added support means that IT staff and security experts can protect Active Directory regardless of if the system is located on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid environment.

Active Directory is used for endpoint management. Since it's used by a large number of banks, government agencies, retailers, and businesses, it is a common attack target. If a malicious actor takes control of Active Directory, they can gain access to a broad range of paths to attack a system.

"For the adversary, it couldn't be more clear: no matter what you want to achieve, control of Active Directory will get you there," explains BloodHound Enterprise in a page explaining why Active Directory is frequently targeted. "This makes Active Directory an extraordinarily attractive target for every adversary."

Microsoft Azure continues to grow in popularity. The service grew 50% year over year in Q4 2021, according to Microsoft. As Azure evolves and is updated over time, its need for security increases. BloodHound Enterprise should help secure systems, even if they're fully in the cloud.

"Attack Path Management has proven to be wildly successful in helping organizations reduce their exposure to Attack Paths in traditional Active Directory; we've seen customers reduce exposure by over 30% in as little as 24 hours after deploying BloodHound Enterprise," said SpecterOps CEO David McGuire.

"But many of our users have a hybrid network, with both on-prem and cloud workloads. Support for Azure, which is our number-one new request from customers by far, will allow organizations running a hybrid cloud model to easily protect their entire identity infrastructure."

Support for Azure is available in preview for BloodHound Enterprise now and will be generally available in April 2022.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has taken a key step toward creating a topological qubit.
• Topological qubits are essential to Microsoft's approach to scale quantum computing to a new level.
• Quantum computing can be used to help solve complex math problems that are needed for solutions to real-world topics including sustainable energy, food production, and environmental care.

Microsoft is working toward creating a new era of quantum computing. The company's efforts revolve around creating millions of qubits that can work together. Newly developed devices by Microsoft's Azure Quantum program can create quantum properties that help demonstrate the validity of physics that has been theorized for decades.

Microsoft's news post, and the topic of quantum computing in general, is highly technical. The main takeaway is that Microsoft has brought scientists one step closer to creating a topological quantum bit, also known as a qubit for short. The unique type of qubit forms the foundation of Microsoft's approach to making quantum computers that can scale more than existing systems.

Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Krysta Svore said that the latest breakthrough could pave the way for computing on a new level.

"What's amazing is humans have been able to engineer a system to demonstrate one of the most exotic pieces of physics in the universe," said Svore. "And we expect to capitalize on this to do the almost unthinkable — to push towards a fault-tolerant quantum machine that will enable computation on an entirely new level that's closer to the way nature operates."

"It's never been done before, and until now it was never certain that it could be done," she continued. "And now it's like yes, here's this ultimate validation that we're on the right path."

While the latest news from Microsoft is considered a large step, scalable quantum computing is still far off.

"There's no fundamental obstacle to producing a topological qubit anymore," said Microsoft General Manager for Fabrication Lauri Sainiemi. "This definitely doesn't mean that we're done — we still have tons of work to do. But the fundamental part has been demonstrated, and now we're on more of an engineering path and that's what we'll continue to pursue."

What you need to know

• Flexera, a value-optimizing IT solutions company, has released its Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report.
• The report collects late-2021 survey responses of 753 cloud decision-makers from around the world with regards to the cloud market.
• The survey notes that Azure is making gains compared to last year's results.

Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are constantly vying for the attention of cloud decision-makers, and a new annual report release offers a window of insight into what said decision-makers are choosing for their organizations.

Flexera, a company focused on technology value optimization, has released its Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report (via The Register). In it, the late-2021 responses of 753 cloud-focused decision-makers paint a picture of what the current cloud market looks like. Though 753 respondents are nowhere near enough to concretely, accurately determine what the big picture looks like, the following figures do offer data worth acknowledging when assessing overall cloud market optics and the positions of Azure and AWS therein.

According to the report, small to midsized businesses (SMBs) still tend to gravitate toward AWS, though adoption was down from 72% the previous year to 69% as of survey time. Azure, meanwhile, went from 48% to 59%. Enterprise usage saw Azure pull ahead of AWS. 80% of enterprise respondents went with Azure compared to 76% the year before, while Amazon dipped down to 77% from its previous year's 79% adoption figure.

Based on the report's findings, Azure is making progress in key areas against AWS. With that said, the battle for the cloud is far bigger than a single report can encapsulate, so expect to see future surveys indicating other trends as well as news of important contracts that could help tip the balance of who has the advantage in key sectors.

What you need to know

• Microsoft announced plans for a new datacenter region in Hyderabad, Telangana, India
• It will be Microsoft's fourth datacenter region in India, joining the existing regions of Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai.
• Microsoft did not confirm the cost of the datacenter, though reports indicate that the price could be $2 billion.

Microsoft just announced that it will launch a fourth datacenter region in India. The new region will be in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, and it will be the largest datacenter investment in the country from Microsoft. While the tech giant has not confirmed the price of its investment, reports claim the cost will be $2 billion (via Reuters).

"I am extremely delighted that Microsoft chose Hyderabad as the destination for its largest datacenter investment in India," said Minister Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and Information Technology, Government of Telangana Shri. KT Rama Rao. "This will also be one of the largest foreign direct investments (FDIs) the state has attracted. Microsoft and Telangana have a long history, with Hyderabad hosting one of the largest Microsoft offices in the world, and I am happy to see the relationship grow."

Microsoft already has datacenter regions in India in Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai. According to IDC, Microsoft's datacenter regions brought $9.5 billion in revenue to the economy between 206 and 2020 (via Microsoft). The news post announcing the new region also highlights that an estimated 1.5 million jobs were created by the current datacenter regions.

"Today's commitment to the people and businesses of India will position the country among the world's digital leaders," said Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Electronics & Information Technology of India Rajeev Chandrasekhar. "A Microsoft datacenter region provides a competitive advantage to our digital economy and is a long-term investment in our country's potential. The cloud is transforming every industry and sector. The investment in skilling will empower India's workforce today and into the future."

Once completed, the Hyderabad datacenter region will work with all of Microsoft's cloud technologies, including AI, productivity tools, and data solutions.

What you need to know

• Microsoft Azure is testing out support for multi-stage access reviews.
• Access reviews allow organizations to manage group memberships and who has access to enterprise applications.
• Multi-stage reviews can be used to create complex workflows to meet requirements for continued access.

Microsoft has a new feature for Azure in public preview. Starting this week, organizations can test out multi-stage access reviews for Azure AD. With access reviews, organizations can set up requirements for employees and individuals to maintain memberships, role assignments, and access to enterprise applications. Multi-stage reviews can be used to create complex workflows for meeting requirements.

"This capability allows you and your organization to enable complex workflows to meet recertification and audit requirements calling for multiple reviewers to attest to access for users in a particular sequence," explains Microsoft. "It also helps you design more efficient reviews for your resource owners and auditors by reducing the number of decisions each reviewer is accountable for."

Microsoft outlines some scenarios that can be created with the new feature:

• Reach consensus across multiple sets of reviewers. Require agreement from independent reviewers at every stage before access is recertified.
• Assign alternate reviewers to weigh in on unreviewed decisions. Ensure accounts left unreviewed by unresponsive or out-of-office reviewers are sent to the next appropriate reviewer, such as the user's manager or the resource owner.
• Reduce burden on later-stage reviewers. Filter down the number of decisions for your later-stage reviewers by excluding accounts denied in previous stages. For example, have users attest to their own needs for access before asking the resource owners to attest.

One of the big changes rolling out in preview is the ability to set up sequential stages. Without multi-stage reviews, it's possible to end up with multiple reviews for the same person. Support for sequential stages should eliminate this issue as people have a clear path to follow as part of a more complex access review.

What you need to know

• Microsoft's AI infrastructure, which is codenamed Singularity, aims to reduce the cost of artificial intelligence.
• Singularity allows hundreds of thousands of GPUs and AI accelerators to work together, which reduces wasted effort.
• Microsoft has invested heavily in AI, including a $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019.

Microsoft is working to reduce the cost of artificial intelligence (AI) and wasted efforts when computing at a global scale. A recently published paper by Microsoft's Azure and Research teams discusses the company's AI service, which is codenamed Singularity. The paper, titled Singularity: Planet-Scale, Preemptive and Elastic Scheduling of AI Workloads (PDF), breaks down Microsoft's work at a technical level.

"Singularity is a fully managed, globally distributed infrastructure service for AI workloads at Microsoft, with support for diverse hardware accelerators. Singularity is designed from the ground up to scale across a global fleet of hundreds of thousands of GPUs and other AI accelerators," explains Microsoft's Azure and Research teams in their paper. "Singularity is built with one key goal: driving down the cost of AI by maximizing the aggregate useful throughput on a given fixed pool of capacity of accelerators at planet scale, while providing stringent SLAs for multiple pricing tiers."

In layman's terms, Microsoft's Singularity lets hundreds of thousands of GPUs and AI accelerators to work together. Singularity is a global infrastructure service designed to reduce wasted efforts. It treats all devices within the infrastructure as a single cluster, which helps ensure that the devices are used to their full potential.

Singularity can also adapt to prioritize different workloads. "While opportunistically using spare capacity, Singularity simultaneously provides isolation by respecting job-level SLAs," says Microsoft. "For example, Singularity adapts to increasing load on an inference job, freeing up capacity by elastically scaling down or preempting training jobs."

In contrast to some other systems that require restarting from scratch following failure, Singularity can jump back in where a job was cut off. This greatly reduces wasted effort as DNN training jobs can take several weeks.

Microsoft has invested heavily in AI over the years, including a $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019. An Azure system is one of the ten most powerful supercomputers in the world, as of November 2021. Azure systems are used for large-scale computing and machine learning.

As noted by ZDNet, Microsoft used the Singularity codename for an unrelated project in the past. That Singularity was a microkernel operating system.

Microsoft's Test Base brings together the power of Azure with the company's passion for development. With Test Base, developers can test their apps against multiple versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10, including pre-release versions of the operating systems, all from a single client.

Test Base can run compatibility tests for monthly security updates and annual feature updates. Since the service works with pre-release versions of Windows, devs can have the best Windows apps ready to go when an OS update rolls out.

Recently, I sat down for a virtual meeting with Raji Rajagopalan, Director of Engineering in Windows+Devices at Microsoft, and Rama Shastri, a principal group program manager at Microsoft, to discuss Test Base, how it helps developers, and how it has already saved millions of PCs from damages.

Simplifying remote development

Test Base wasn't specifically built for the pandemic; its development began in 2018, but it has become a tool that allows developers to work from home. Because Test Base runs on the cloud, developers can authenticate their programs from anywhere connected to the web. Previously, testing apps in this way would have required a physical office with several machines dedicated to running various versions of Windows.

"We've been working on this since [2018], so enter 2020, and as we all know, there is a global pandemic ... and we started seeing how a remote testing service can make the process of testing [through] the cloud be very effective for this moment in time," Rajagopalan explained.

The Test Base team is an example of remote work with a team spanning across the globe. Its members are based in Lagos, Nigeria; Shanghai, China; Redmond, Washington; and other areas around the world.

Operating on the cloud provides another benefit to Test Base users, not having to have large offices full of expensive setups. Depending on the scope of an app, offices could include dozens of PCs and servers for testing.

Rajagopalan started her career as a tester at Microsoft. Back in those days, testing apps required complex and expensive setups that had to be maintained in-house.

"I started my career at Microsoft as a tester ... so I'm very familiar with writing huge test matrices where if I have to test my applications, I have to figure out what are the other dependencies and draw that matrix, which is quite tedious and expensive. Every time I had to do this, whether it was with automation or manual testing, it was a time-consuming process," Rajagopalan said.

How Test Base works

Test Base is a service by Microsoft that allows developers to onboard applications through the Azure portal for testing. It provides performance metrics, crash reports, and other test results to help developers determine whether an app runs as intended on different versions of Windows 11 or Windows 10.

If there is an issue with compatibility, Test Base can help determine what's causing problems. For example, Test Base can show you the moment an application failed, which can help find what was going on leading up to the app's failure.

Because Test Base is from Microsoft, it provides access to pre-release versions of Windows and Windows Server. This allows developers to be proactive rather than reactive. Without the benefit of testing against pre-release versions of Windows, developers would have long days any time a new version of Windows came out.

Of course, issues can still occur even after testing against pre-release versions of Windows, but Test Base's access to early builds takes some stress off devs.

Test Base has a free trial that includes 100 hours of free test validation. After the trial period, Test Base costs $8 per hour of actual use.

Saving people from trouble

Shastri shared a real-world example from a security software company (not specified):

Rather than rolling out an update that spiked CPU usage and caused other issues, the company was able to address the problem before any customer was affected.

Future-proofed by the cloud

In some ways, Test Base was ahead of its time, and illustrates why moving toward the cloud is a sound strategy in many industries. While it wasn't designed with the pandemic in mind, being built on Azure allows remote development from teams around the world.

Now that hybrid and remote work are here to stay, developers can utilize Azure to build applications. Even for companies that have a physical office, Test Base allows organizations to move away from bulky and expensive setups for onboarding applications.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has released its Cyber Signals security brief.
• It's designed to be a quarterly released resource for security officers to stay abreast of the field's latest developments.
• It reveals that cyber threats are escalating and evolving at a dangerous pace compared to how fast organizations are adopting the latest security methods.

Microsoft has released Cyber Signals, a brief containing highlights of the current cybersecurity landscape that specialists in the sector need to know about. Cyber Signals is set to be a quarterly release that keeps people up to speed on the latest trends and observations from Microsoft.

February 2022's edition of Cyber Signals and its corresponding blog post feature worrisome observations from Microsoft, such as the fact that the company's research indicates that "across industries, only 22% of customers using Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), Microsoft's Cloud Identity Solution, have implemented strong identity authentication protection as of December 2021." In other words, a lot of organizations aren't bothering to invest in passwordless security and multifactor authentication (MFA).

Microsoft routinely reports on cybercriminal schemes that rely on users not having MFA to protect themselves, including one particularly recent, sophisticated phishing campaign, so it may shock some people that those investing in Microsoft's solutions often aren't utilizing them to the fullest. Such findings have been observed within pools of Microsoft 365 users as well, wherein many of the tools MS365 provides are left unused by the customers paying for them.

The February 2022 Cyber Signals brief is relatively short (as evidenced by its classification as a brief), so security specialists will want to give it a quick skim to see if their actions qualify as a statistic in Microsoft's research. The write-up contains lots of cybercrime trivia that could be interesting even to those outside the security sector. For example, did you know that ransomware kits, on average, cost just $66 upfront? Details like that are plentiful in Microsoft's security-minded release.

What you need to know

• Microsoft's Azure DDoS Protection team mitigated an 'unprecedented level' of attacks in the second half of 2021.
• At one point in 2021, Microsoft stopped an average of 1,955 DDoS attacks per day.
• Microsoft mitigated an attack with a throughput of 3.47 Tbps in November, which is believed to be the largest attack of its type in history.

Microsoft saw an 'unprecedented level' of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks in the second half of 2021. The company explains in an Azure blog post that both the complexity and frequency of DDoS attacks reached new levels during that time. In the second half of the year, Microsoft mitigated an average of 1,955 attacks per day. A total of 359,713 unique attacks were stopped by Microsoft in the final six months of 2021.

DDoS attacks essentially spam a website to prevent it from working properly. They are often used by gamers to harm other people's networks to ensure victory. Last year, DDOS attacks targeted Blizzard games, Titanfall, Final Fantasy 14, and several other big-name titles. DDoS attacks can also be used for more malicious purposes, such as shutting down a retail website during the holidays.

A DDoS ransom attack uses the same methods as a traditional DDoS attack, but the malicious actor demands payment in exchange for allowing a site to work again.

Cloudflare has a video explaining and illustrating how DDoS attacks work.

The Microsoft Azure YouTube channel has a video on how to defend against DDoS attacks, though it doesn't have cute animations like Cloudflare's video.

Microsoft mitigated a DDoS attack with a throughput of 3.47 Tbps in November 2021. The company believes it to be the largest DDoS attack in history. The attack involved 10,000 sources from several countries, contributing to an offensive that lasted roughly 15 minutes.

While not quite as large as the November attack, Microsoft also mitigated 2.5 Tbps and 3.25 Tbps DDoS attacks in December 2021.

Microsoft's blog post explains that Azure's DDoS protection platform works by having pipelines that can "scale enormously." This allows the platform to absorb even the largest of DDoS attacks.

What you need to know

• NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses Azure Quantum to efficiently plan schedules for communication with spacecraft through the Deep Space Network.
• Azure Quantum was used to reduce the needed time to create a schedule from two hours to approximately two minutes.
• The Deep Space Network is used to communicate with the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover and the James Webb Space Telescope.

Microsoft's Azure Quantum is being used to improve the scheduling of communication with spacecraft such as the James Webb Space Telescope. In order to communicate with spacecraft, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) uses the Deep Space Network (DSN), which is a network of radio antennae in California, Spain, and Australia.

Scheduling time on the DSN is complicated due to several constraints and the fact that the network receives hundreds of requests each week. Microsoft explains how its Azure Quantum is being used to streamline the scheduling process in a recent blog post.

Since the DSN has antennae around the globe, it can constantly communicate with spacecraft. But as the number of spacecraft increases and missions become more complex, it becomes more difficult to meet the demand for key communication.

Microsoft's team recorded runtimes of at least two hours when it first looked into the scheduling situation. Using Azure Quantum, the required time was lowered to 16 minutes. A custom solution further brought the time needed down to approximately two minutes.

Despite relating to communication through space, Microsoft notes that the lessons learned through this project can apply to situations on earth.

This isn't the first time that Microsoft has helped speed up tasks related to spacecraft. HoloLens 2 headsets have helped NASA workers complete tasks in 45 minutes that originally took eight hours. The International Space Station also uses Microsoft Azure for data processing.