Starting with India, the four-year investment runs from 2026 to 2029 and marks Microsoft’s largest commitment in Asia. It builds on a previous $3 billion investment announced in January, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

The announcement followed a meeting between Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella (pictured, left) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (pictured, right) to discuss India’s AI roadmap. Microsoft said its strategy aligns with the government’s ambition to move from digital public infrastructure to AI public infrastructure at national scale.

A central focus will be hyperscale capacity. Microsoft plans to bring its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad online by mid-2026, which the company said will be its largest data centre region in the country. It will also expand its existing data centre regions in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.

Beyond infrastructure, the company also plans to accelerate AI adoption on public platforms. It will integrate advanced AI capabilities into government platforms, extending AI-enabled services such as multilingual access and AI-assisted job matching to more than 310 million informal workers.

In addition, Microsoft is scaling up workforce development, doubling its AI skilling target to 20 million people by 2030. Union minister of electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishna said, “Microsoft’s landmark investment signals India’s rise as a reliable technology partner for the world.”

Canadian ambitions
In Canada, Microsoft’s CAD19 billion investment runs from 2023 to 2027, with more than CAD7.5 billion earmarked for the next two years.

The company will expand its Azure Canada Central and Canada East data centre regions, strengthening domestic data residency and sovereign cloud capabilities for government and enterprises.

The company also unveiled a five-point digital sovereignty plan focused on cybersecurity defence, ensuring data sovereignty, strengthening privacy protections, supporting domestic AI developers and ensuring the continuity of cloud services amid geopolitical uncertainty.

As part of this effort, Microsoft has now launched a dedicated Threat Intelligence Hub in Ottawa, bringing together threat intelligence experts and applied AI security research to work closely with Canadian government and law enforcement partners.

Microsoft expects the new digital and AI capacity in the country to begin coming online in the second half of 2026. Brad Smith, vice chair and president, said “we believe Canada has what it takes to help lead the world in responsible AI innovation and adoption”.

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The Alphabet-owned company originally filed a complaint with the European Commission (EC) last year, accusing Microsoft of anti-competitive conduct that allegedly locked customers into its Azure cloud platform.

Reuters reported that Giorgia Abeltino, head of government affairs and public policy for Google Cloud Europe, stated the company is withdrawing its complaint “in light of the recent announcement that the EC will assess problematic practices affecting the cloud sector under a separate process”.

Last week, the EC opened an investigation into whether structural features of the cloud computing industry are responsible for reinforcing the market power of players including Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“We continue to work with policymakers, customers, and regulators across the EU, the UK, and elsewhere to advocate for choice and openness in the cloud market,” Abeltino reportedly added.

The EC’s year-long probe could result in cloud players including Azure and AWS being designated as “gatekeepers” under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which would subject them to strict regulations designed to curb market dominance and promote competition.

Settled amicably
Microsoft has previously rebuffed Google’s claims. In July 2024, the company reached a €20 million settlement with trade body CISPE to resolve a separate antitrust complaint over its cloud licensing practices. Following that deal, a Microsoft representative told Mobile World Live it expected the Commission to dismiss Google’s complaint.

“Microsoft settled amicably similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, even after Google hoped they would keep litigating,” the company said at the time. “Having failed to persuade European companies, we expect Google similarly will fail to persuade the European Commission.”

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The VP, Telco, Media, Entertainment & Gaming of Microsoft presents at MWC Doha in the session: Industry Ignited: Technology, Transformation & the New Rules of Growth

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The EC stated it opened investigations to assess if the pair should be designated as gatekeepers for their cloud services Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

It explained the probes would explore if the companies act as “gateways between businesses and consumers, despite not meeting DMA gatekeeper thresholds for size, user number and market position”.

Computing services including Azure and AWS are the backbone of many digital services and are crucial for AI development, the EC stated.

“To foster innovation, trust and Europe’s strategic autonomy, cloud services must be provided in a fair, open and competitive environment.”

The EC aims to conclude the market investigations within 12 months. If they are designated with gatekeeper status, the companies will have six months to ensure full compliance under DMA obligations.

Another separate investigation was also launched to assess if the DMA can effectively tackle practices which may limit competitiveness and fairness in the cloud computing sector in the European Union.

The EC is gathering information from relevant market players to assess obstacles to interoperability between cloud services; limited or conditioned access for business users to data; tying and bundling services; and potentially imbalanced contractual terms.

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Bloomberg reported the new data centre in Sines, Portugal is being developed with UK-based AI startup Nscale and Portuguese developer Start Campus.

A representative from Start Campus told the news agency the $10 billion investment lines up with ongoing discussion about the next phase of development after it opened the first of six planned buildings in March.

In October, Nscale expanded a deal with Microsoft to supply the technology giant with 200,000 Nvidia GPUs in what it stated was one of the largest AI contracts signed to date. The deal included delivering Nvidia GB300 GPUs to the Sines data centre.

Last month, Start Campus and Nscale announced a partnership to deliver 12,600 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs for use at the Sines data centre. The two companies stated the infrastructure and first deployment are set to go live by Q1 2026 at the Sines location.

Nscale secured $1.1 billion in funding in September from backers including Nvidia and Nokia, cash earmarked for its global hyperscale ambition.

Earlier this month, Microsoft continued its quest to secure more compute capacity for AI services by striking a $9.7 billion deal with Australia-based data centre company IREN.

To meet the surging demand for AI services, the tech giant also agreed a data centre deal with United Arab Emirates-based G42.

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Mustafa Suleyman, chief of Microsoft’s AI group, will lead the newly formed MAI Superintelligence Team which will develop so-called superintelligence AI models capable of going beyond artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Superintelligence refers to a theoretical form of AI which would not just match, but vastly exceed human intelligence across every domain of cognitive ability. 

Meta Platforms and OpenAI are also seeking to develop superintelligence systems capable of performing human-level tasks.

“If AGI is often seen as the point at which an AI can match human performance at all tasks, then superintelligence is when it can go far beyond that performance,” Suleyman wrote in a blog.

He explained the MAI Superintelligence Team at Microsoft AI is dedicated to researching and building the world’s best superintelligence, grounded in humanist values.

“We’re working towards Humanist Superintelligence (HSI): incredibly advanced AI capabilities that always work for, in service of, people and humanity more generally,” he stated. “We think of it as systems that are problem-oriented and tend towards the domain specific”.

“Not an unbounded and unlimited entity with high degrees of autonomy, but AI that is carefully calibrated, contextualised, within limits.”

The blog about Microsoft’s MAI Superintelligence Team was published after OpenAI contracted to purchase additional Microsoft Azure services valued at $250 billion and agreed to give the tech giant a 27 per cent stake worth about $135 billion.

In November, OpenAI completed a recapitalisation plan to split the company up by placing its AI laboratory into a for-profit corporation within its non-profit foundation.

Bloomberg reported the renegotiated agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI removed a prior prohibition on the former developing advanced AI tools.

Early last year, Microsoft hired Inflection AI co-founder Suleyman and licenced the intellectual property of his startup.

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The additional capacity will be delivered through G42 subsidiary Khazna Data Centers with operations slated to begin by the end of 2026.

The expansion will provide further AI and cloud infrastructure across the country, “strengthening Microsoft Azure’s secure, scalable, and sovereign cloud services” while supporting the UAE’s national digital economy strategy.

The move comes on the heels of the tech giant announcing an investment in the UAE earlier this month, pledging a sum of $15.2 billion by 2029.

Microsoft also revealed it is first company under the administration of US President Donald Trump to secure export licenses from the US Commerce Department to ship Nvidia GPUs to the UAE.

In 2024 Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in a minority stake in G42, a deal which gave the tech giant a seat on the company’s board of directors.

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Under the agreement, IREN will provide Microsoft with access to Nvidia’s GB300 GPUs over a five-year term. The deal includes a 20 per cent pre-payment by Microsoft.

The GPUs will be installed in phases throughout 2026 at IREN’s 750MW Childress, Texas campus in conjunction with the delivery of new liquid-cooled data centres, which will collectively support 200MW of critical IT load.

Separately, IREN has entered into an agreement with Dell Technologies to purchase the GPUs and additional equipment for $5.8 billion.

Its deal provides Microsoft with additional compute capacity for AI without needing to build new data centres or source additional power. It also gives the tech giant access to Nvidia’s advanced chips without purchasing them itself.

Last month, UK-based AI start-up Nscale expanded a deal with Microsoft to supply the technology giant with 200,000 Nvidia GPUs to scale up infrastructure across Europe and the US.

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AWS will provide OpenAI with its EC2 UltraServers, featuring hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUS and the ability to scale to tens of millions of CPUs.

The infrastructure AWS is building for OpenAI features sophisticated clustering of Nvidia GB200s and GB300s GPUs on the EC2 UltraServers, enabling low-latency, high-performance AI processing.

The clusters are designed to support various workloads, from serving inference for ChatGPT to training next generation models, with the flexibility to adapt to OpenAI’s evolving needs.

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman noted scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute and working with “AWS strengthens the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone”.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated on X OpenAI will start using AWS’s infrastructure immediately and expects to have all the capacity deployed before the end of next year with the ability to expand in 2027 and beyond.

CNBC reported AWS rival Microsoft was previously OpenAI’s exclusive cloud-computing provider before announcing an end to the arrangement in January. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 and then around $10 billion in 2023.

Last month, OpenAI was contracted to purchase additional Microsoft Azure services valued at $250 billion and agreed to give the tech giant a 27 per cent stake worth about $135 billion.

As part of its recapitalisation plan, OpenAI can now jointly develop some products with third parties while Microsoft’s IP rights now exclude the AI company’s consumer hardware.

Before its plan was final, OpenAI agreed a deal to rent a large amount of computing power from Oracle for use in US data centres as part of the ChatGPT maker’s Stargate joint venture project.

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Microsoft 365 Copilot users can now access Anthropic’s Claude models in Researcher and Copilot Studio, which allows them to switch between OpenAI and Anthropic offerings for various tasks.

The Claude models are rolling out via the Frontier Program to Microsoft 365 Copilot-licenced customers who opt in, with access enabled through its admin centre.

The fresh models are hosted on outside Microsoft-managed environments and are subject to Anthropic’s terms and conditions.

“Copilot will continue to be powered by OpenAI’s latest models, and now our customers will have the flexibility to use Anthropic models too,” stated Charles Lamanna, president of Microsoft’s business and industry Copilot team, in a blog post.

“The addition of Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 advances our commitment to bring the best AI innovation from across the industry to Microsoft 365 Copilot, tuned for work and tailored to your business needs.”

While OpenAI got an early jump on competitors with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, businesses, organisations and mobile operators have found some large language models are better suited for specific tasks.

Microsoft has a long-standing partnership with OpenAI. It invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 and then around $10 billion in 2023.

Earlier this month, OpenAI signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft to agree new terms on their existing partnership

Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, is one of OpenAI’s top rivals. Also in September, Anthropic locked up $13 billion in funding for a valuation of $183 billion.

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According to a blog by Microsoft, it is partnering with data centre company Nscale Global Holdings and Norwegian industrial investment company Aker ASA to build the AI infrastructure in Narvik, which is a town above the Arctic Circle.

It noted Narvik has abundant hydropower, low electricity demand, cool climate, and existing industrial infrastructure, “which together enable affordable and sustainable large-scale data centre operations”.

The companies signed a five-year agreement to roll out advanced AI infrastructure powered entirely by renewable energy, with service delivery starting in 2026.

Josh Payne, founder and CEO of Nscale stated the site will deliver one of the largest GPU deployments in the world and “confirms Narvik’s role as a strategic hub for AI in Europe”.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a partnership with Nscale and Nvidia to build a supercomputer in London using more than 23,000 GPUs.

Last week, Microsoft struck a deal with Nebius Group worth around $20 billion to provide dedicated GPU infrastructure capacity to the tech giant from a new data centre in Vineland, New Jersey.

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The flurry of announcements were anticipated by several news outlets, timed to coincide with a state visit to the UK by US President Donald Trump.

Investments detailed by Google, Nvidia and Microsoft alone totalled £45 billion, while OpenAI intends to house thousands of GPUs in the UK as part of its Stargate initiative.

Add to this a target by the UK government to attract £30 billion of investment by creating an AI growth zone in North-East England and it has been a good week for the nation’s standing in the technology.

Here’s a rundown of the moves announced.

Nvidia
The company is partnering with domestic AI infrastructure company Nscale to deliver up to 60,000 of its Grace Blackwell GPUs to the UK, adding to a global move involving up to 300,000 of the units.

Nvidia and Nscale also plan to invest up to £11 billion in UK AI factories in a deal involving CoreWeave. The US company branded this the largest deployment of relevant infrastructure in the UK’s history, one involving up to 120,000 of its Blackwell GPUs.

The result should be a series of AI factories tailored towards leading models which will boost UK sovereignty and its economy, Nvidia explained. The plan is to have these up and running by the close of 2026.

CEO Jensen Huang (pictured, right) said the nation is gearing up for an “AI industrial revolution, advancing science, transforming industries and creating new economic opportunities”.

He branded the nation’s “world-class expertise, outstanding universities and vibrant industries” as a “Goldilocks ecosystem”.

Microsoft
The software giant detailed a $30 billion (£21.9 billion) investment in AI infrastructure and operations running from this year until 2028, noting it is its largest financial commitment to the nation.

Capex is set to account for half the sum, with Microsoft intent on building the biggest supercomputer in the UK. There is a crossover, with this element involving 23,000 Nvidia GPUs and a partnership with Nscale.

Some of the $15 billion is also allocated towards expanding its datacentre footprint. Microsoft noted the UK National Health Service, banking group Barclays and the London Stock Exchange are among its customers.

Microsoft stated the other half of its investment would go towards operational expenses, in particular its 6,000 staff in the UK who are developing AI models, products and games, and running its datacentres, and sales and support services.

The company noted the support of the UK government was key in its ability to commit the massive sum to the nation.

HM Government
The government appeared keen to spread the benefits with its AI Growth Zone plan, which it hopes will unlock more than 5,000 new jobs along with billions in investment.

It stated the goal is to expand on current regional skilling programmes and support a local ambition to become one of Europe’s biggest data centre hubs.

The government noted asset management company Blackstone committed £10 billion to a site in Blyth.

It earmarked Cobalt Park as a second area involved in the North-East England programme.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (pictured, right) noted the region is well served by windfarms, and is plotting solar energy and battery storage moves.

OpenAI
The company backed the UK as the latest market where its Stargate J/V would have a presence, planning to allocate up to 8,000 GPUs in Q1 2026 to run its AI models in the nation.

OpenAI is working with Nvidia and Nscale on the move and noted it builds on a memorandum of understanding struck with the UK government in July involving infrastructure needs and AI adoption.

Nscale’s involvement links OpenAI’s plans with the UK government’s growth move, with capacity for Stargate set to be included in the Cobalt Park site. Nvidia is due to bring its “most advanced GPUs” to the table.

OpenAI looked beyond infrastructure, detailing an ambition to work with domestic business leaders and the government to “design flexible and customisable learning experiences” for AI.

Altman praised the UK for its pioneering approach to AI, “world-class researchers, millions of ChatGPT users and a government that quickly recognised the potential of this technology”.

Google
The search giant is lining up a further £5 billion investment in the UK over the next two years, with a heavy focus on scientific research and its DeepMind efforts.

Google detailed the investment at the opening of a data centre which itself was hailed as a “powerful vote of confidence” in the nation by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who opened the facility.

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In a short statement, the companies revealed they are working to “finalise contractual terms in a definitive agreement”, while remaining focused on “delivering the best AI tools for everyone”.

The announcement marks a major step forward in ongoing talks between the pair to sign a fresh deal, as OpenAI looks to overhaul its structure and establish a for-profit division to boost its access to capital and fund its development.

Under initial proposals, OpenAI planned to convert its non-profit business to become for-profit. However, the company revised the plan and stated in May its non-profit entity would control the whole company, including a for-profit unit.

Elon Musk, a cofounder of OpenAI, has criticised the restructuring plans and threatened a lawsuit.

Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 and then around $10 billion in 2023. Reuters reported under the previous terms of their agreement, Microsoft had exclusive rights to sell OpenAI’s sotware tools and had preferred access to its technology.

The outlet added that as OpenAI’s revenue grows into billions of dollars, it is seeking to establish more partnerships with cloud providers and operate a conventional corporate structure, helping it to grow further.

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In a statement, the Amsterdam-based company outlined a financing package consisting of $2 billion in convertible notes and $1 billion in Class A shares in a public offering. The capital will be directed toward expanding its data centre footprint, acquiring additional compute power and hardware and securing strategic high-quality land plots.

Nebius stated $1 billion of the convertible notes will mature in 2030, with the remainder due in 2032.

The AI infrastructure player announced the capital raise in the same week it confirmed a five-year deal to supply dedicated GPU infrastructure capacity to Microsoft from a new data centre in Vineland, New Jersey. According to a regulatory filing, the contract is valued at about $17.4 billion through 2031, with the potential to reach $19.4 billion if Microsoft exercises its option to acquire additional services and capacity.

Nebius CEO Arkady Volozh stated that while “the economics of the deal are attractive in their own right”, the tie-up will also “help us to accelerate the growth of our AI cloud business even further in 2026 and beyond”.

The partnership triggered strong investor enthusiasm as Nebius’ Nasdaq-listed shares soared over 49 per cent to a record high after the announcement, and are now up 245 per cent this year to date, Reuters reported.

The deal comes as Microsoft accelerates investment in new data centres to meet mounting demand for cloud and AI services.

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The GSA stated the deal, which also includes the tech giant’s cybersecurity tools, could save US government agencies up to $3.1 billion in the first year.

It includes free access to its generative AI chatbot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, for up to 12 months.

The discounts to government agencies extend to Microsoft Sentinel, Azure Monitoring, Entra ID Governance, and Dynamics 365, along with workshops for adoption, implementation and optimisation.

Federal agencies can opt-in to any or all of those offers through September 2026 with discounted pricing available for up to 36 months for certain products.

GSA stated the agencies benefit from a government wide unified pricing strategy which leverages the federal government’s purchasing power to reduce costs while fostering AI innovation.

Federal acquisition service commissioner Josh Gruenbaum stated GSA is accelerating access to AI for federal agencies and as part of a plan to deliver on US President Donald Trump’s AI action plan.

GSA announced similar AI-related arrangements last month with Amazon Web Services, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

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CNBC reported Nadella made the comments in a memo to staff. The news outlet explained Microsoft culled 15,000 jobs this year, with the latest round of 9,000 occurring earlier this month.

After the layoffs, CNBC reported the company’s stock closed above $500 for the first time on 9 July.

Nadella stated the layoff decisions “are among the most difficult we have to make”.

He noted while the company is thriving, job cuts “affect people we’ve worked alongside, learned from and shared countless moments with, our colleagues, teammates and friends”.

Nadella called on employees to go through a process of “unlearning” and “learning” to meet customers’ changing needs.

“We must reimagine our mission for a new era.”

“What does empowerment look like in the era of AI? It’s not just about building tools for specific roles or tasks. It’s about building tools that empower everyone to create their own tools.”

“That’s the shift we are driving, from a software factory to an intelligence engine empowering every person and organisation to build whatever they need to achieve.”

Microsoft is making massive investments in AI.

In April, it invested $1.5 billion in a minority stake in United Arab Emirates-based AI company G42, a deal giving Microsoft a seat on the board.

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Under the five-year agreement, Microsoft stated a key focus of the partnership will be integrating cloud and AI technologies into the Premier League’s new fan-facing digital platforms.

Starting from today, fans will be able to access information about clubs, players and matches through the Premier League Companion app and browser, which is powered by Copilot.

Fellow US technology company Oracle previously provided the Premier League with cloud computing services, however its agreement expired in May. Microsoft is also a partner for Spain’s La Liga.

Significant transformation
Premier League Companion uses Azure OpenAI to pull information from more than 30 seasons of stats, 300,000 articles and 9,000 videos, and will be enhanced throughout the upcoming season.

Additions will include open-text questions and answers in multiple languages through text and audio translation. Later in the season, Microsoft AI will also be added to the league’s official fantasy football game.

The deal was hailed by the pair as “one of the most significant technology transformations” in the league’s history, anchored around: fan engagement; match insights and analysis; cloud transformation; and organisational productivity.

Through Microsoft Azure Foundry services, including Azure OpenAI, the two will work to further enhance the live match experience with real-time data overlays and post-match analysis.

Judson Althoff, EVP and CCO at Microsoft, said it would use its technology to “transform how football is experienced, delivered and managed on and off the field”.

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In a blog, it explained all remote access by Microsoft engineers to systems which store and process Europe-based data would “be approved and monitored by European resident personnel in real time and will be logged in a tamper-evident ledger”.

The tech giant has fully implemented its EU Data Boundary initiative across its Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to store and process customer data on infrastructure located in Europe.

Microsoft’s sovereign public cloud is currently in preview mode for cloud customers ahead of general availability later this year.

A private sovereign cloud offering for governments, critical industries and regulated sectors is also in preview mode, with general availability due in the coming months.

In April, Microsoft president and vice-chair Brad Smith stated the company would respect European competition law and the Digital Markets Act while also allaying fears of dominance by large US cloud companies.

The measures announced in April also include expanding local data centre capacity, growing cybersecurity and engineering teams in ten countries, and investing in AI infrastructure.

Earlier this month, Microsoft unveiled a plan to provide European governments free access to a cybersecurity support programme to strengthen resilience against AI threats.

It also announced a $400 million investment to improve Switzerland’s AI and cloud computing capabilities, and a plan to invest $704.4 million in Poland to upgrade its infrastructure.

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In an evolving landscape of AI-driven cybercrime, Microsoft flagged rising attacks on European networks, warning of credential theft, espionage, and ransomware operations targeting both governments and academic institutions.

In response, the new initiative introduces three core goals: increasing AI-based intelligence sharing with European governments, investing in cybersecurity capacity and resilience, and expanding partnerships to disrupt cybercriminal operations.

All 27 EU member states, EU accession candidates, European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, the UK, Monaco, and the Vatican will receive free access to the programme. Microsoft said participating governments will benefit from real-time threat updates, insights into foreign influence campaigns using deepfakes, and early vulnerability alerts.

The programme focuses on improving intelligence sharing and defence against mounting cyberattacks, many of which the company said have been linked to state-sponsored actors from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.

In a blog post, Microsoft president and VC Brad Smith said the company will “remain a trusted and steadfast partner to Europe in securing its digital future,” highlighting that AI will be central to detecting and countering threats.

Speaking to Reuters, Smith added: “Our goal needs to be to keep AI advancing as a defensive tool faster than it advances as an offensive weapon.”

The executive also told the publication that while deepfake videos have made headlines, audio manipulation has so far proven easier and more influential. Among such AI-powered deepfakes are a fake audio clip that affected Slovakia’s 2023 election and a 2022 video showing a fabricated surrender to Russia by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

As part of its latest initiative, the company is also embedding staff at Europol’s cybercrime unit in The Hague and ramping up support for NGOs through its renewed partnership with the CyberPeace Institute.

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The companies are associating their individual threat source taxonomies, publishing details of the most common cyberthreat players and matching any aliases found on each list.

Microsoft stated their reference guide is a “starting point, a way to translate across naming systems so defenders can work faster”.

It referenced near decade-old research by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology which showed improvements in “understanding, coordination and overall security posture” when naming processes are aligned.

Microsoft stated it processes 84 trillion threat signals each day under its own taxonomy, highlighting the potential risk of any one threat being tackled under a different name by a different security company.

The software giant warned “even seconds of delay can mean the difference between stopping a cyberattack or falling victim to ransomware”.

Microsoft emphasised it is not pushing for a single naming standard, instead seeking to up the protection provided to its customers.

“Google/Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 will also be contributing”, it stated.

Microsoft and CrowdStrike made headlines in 2024 when an estimated 8.5 million devices were impacted by a defective update, though chiefs emphasised it was not a cyberattack.

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Announced during a meeting in Bern between Swiss economy minister Guy Parmelin and Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith, the investment will be directed toward expanding and upgrading the company’s four data centres located near Geneva and Zurich.

As part of the upgrade, the software giant plans to introduce advanced AI infrastructure aimed at regulated sectors such as finance, healthcare and government. Microsoft stated the upgrade is expected to serve more than 50,000 existing customers.

Beyond infrastructure, Microsoft also committed to increasing collaboration with local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and enhancing digital skills development. The plan also includes a nationwide AI skilling initiative targeting 1 million people by 2027 as the company vies to step up its training programmes in a bid to boost AI adoption.

Internationally, the company also plans to intensify its cooperation with Geneva-based UN agencies to use AI in humanitarian and rights-focused initiatives.

Smith noted the investment will help “further strengthen Switzerland’s long-term economic resilience and competitiveness, while ensuring full compliance with Swiss regulations”, hailing the country as a global leader in innovation.

According to Reuters, although the company currently employs 1,000 people in Switzerland, it did not disclose how many new roles the investment would create.

The move comes in response to growing demand for generative AI (genAI) and cloud services across the country, with the company noting increased usage of its Azure OpenAI model in Switzerland since mid-2023. In addition, the country now ranks second globally for GitHub AI contributors while AI usage across Microsoft’s local customer base rose 3 percentage points to 31 per cent over the past six months.

The latest news comes after Microsoft announced a $705 million AI and cloud investment in Poland earlier this year.

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In a notice, the FTC confirmed it was dismissing the case into the long-completed deal, stating it was not in the public interest to continue pursuing it.

The decision comes following an effort lasting almost two years from the FTC to block the acquisition, which was completed in late 2023 and first announced in early 2022.

FTC appealed the tie-up shortly after it was confirmed. However, a court denied it an injunction earlier this month. It did have the option to attempt to unwind the deal in court in July, which it has not taken.

The watchdog has long argued the deal would essentially enable Microsoft to suppress competition in the console and cloud gaming sectors.

Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said the FTC’s decision to end its opposition is “a victory for players across the country and for the common sense in Washington DC”.

Under the Trump administration, FTC’s new chair Andrew Ferguson is moving to shut down some probes initiated by predecessor Lina Khan, as well as setting out plans to use the agency’s resources which are in line with the President’s agenda.

For example, Reuters reported the FTC is now set to pursue a probe assessing if advertisers colluded to spend less on Elon Musk’s social media platform X.

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Speaking at the company’s Redmond headquarters, CTO Kevin Scott said the company’s focus is on driving industry-wide standards to enable collaboration between AI agents built by different vendors, Reuters reported.

Agents are AI-powered systems designed to carry out tasks independently, such as identifying and resolving software bugs.

To this end, Scott revealed that Microsoft is supporting the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source framework from Google-backed AI company Anthropic aimed at enabling communication and integration between AI models. According to the executive, MCP has the potential to enable AI agents to collaborate across products and platforms.

Scott pitched MCP as a key step toward building what he called the “agentic web”, comparing it to how early internet standards powered the growth of the internet. “It means that your imagination gets to drive what the agentic web becomes, not just a handful of companies that happen to see some of these problems first,” he noted.

The CTO also addressed limitations in current AI systems, noting most interactions today are short-lived and “very transactional”. However, meeting this challenge by boosting AI recall and memory retention from past interactions typically demands more computing power.

As a result, Scott revealed that Microsoft is working on enhancing memory in AI agents using an approach dubbed ‘structured retrieval augmentation’, which captures and organises key snippets from past conversations rather than storing entire interactions, reducing the need for expensive full-memory processing.

The updates comes as Microsoft kicks off its Build developer conference in Seattle today (May 19). According to Reuters, the event is expected to focus heavily on the company’s AI ambitions as it seeks to turn large-scale investments in services like Copilot into profitable tools for enterprise and cloud customers.

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Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said last week during the company’s fiscal Q3 2025 earnings call that it expects to have some AI-related capacity constraints beyond June.

Mary Jander, senior analyst for research company Futuriom, noted to Mobile World Live (MWL) the tech giant doled out $21.4 billion capex for the quarter, down from $22.6 billion a year ago, but expects it to increase in the current quarter. Microsoft is on pace for capex of more than $80 billion in fiscal 2025.

Even with that increase, Microsoft could come up short for the compute it needs for its AI and cloud-based services.

Hood stated while Microsoft continues to bring data centre capacity online as planned, “demand is growing a bit faster”.

“Therefore, we now expect to have some AI capacity constraints beyond June,” she explained. “We had hoped to be in balance by the end of Q4.

“So, we are going to be a little short, a little tight as we exit the year but are encouraged by that.”

On the earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella refuted rumours from the past few weeks it cancelled data centre leases or dialed back build outs.

Nadella stated Microsoft opened data centres in ten countries on four continents in the most recent quarter as part of an effort to put capacity where it is most needed.

While Microsoft does not break out AI revenue, Hood stated commercial bookings increased 18 per cent “significantly ahead of expectations again this quarter driven by an Azure commitment from OpenAI”.

AWS
AWS parent Amazon splashed $24.3 billion on capex in Q1, down from $26.3 billion a year ago. For the full year of fiscal 2025, Amazon expects to spend $105 billion on capex which will primarily go towards AI capabilities and AWS expansion.

“Before this generation of AI, we thought AWS has a chance to ultimately be a multi-$100 billion revenue run rate business. We now think it could be even larger,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on the earnings call.

“If you believe your mission is to make customers’ lives easier and better every day, and you believe that every customer experience will be reinvented with AI, you’re going to invest very aggressively in AI, and that’s what we’re doing.”

MoffettNathanson senior MD Craig Moffett stated in a research note that “AWS is capacity constrained and would be growing faster with greater chip availability”.

Jassy said the company’s AI sector is now a multi-billion-dollar annual run rate business and that it is growing triple digit percentages year over year.

“As fast as we actually put the capacity in, it’s being consumed,” he explained. “I think we could be helping more customers and driving more revenue for the business if we had more capacity.”

In the face of increased demand, Jassy said “the supply chain issues, and the capacity issues will continue to get better as the year proceeds”.

Amazon CFO Brian Olesofsky said the tech titan plans on increasing capacity in the back half of this year.

What it means
Meta Platforms boosted its 2025 capex plans to between $64 billion and $72 billion broaden its AI infrastructure after previously guiding $60 billion to $65 billion.

Google parent Alphabet stated earlier this year it plans to invest $75 billion in 2025 to expand its data centre capacity.

Alphabet noted on its Q1 earnings call last month “the investment level may fluctuate from quarter to quarter due to the impact of changes in the timing of deliveries and construction schedules”.

“It’s possible that with tariffs and export controls, the hyperscalers will run into supply chain issues for data centre structural materials as well as for the components needed to create AI factories,” Jander explained.

Driven by growth in generative AI services, Synergy Research Group’s data shows Q1 enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services increased to $94 billion worldwide, which marked a 23 per cent year over year increase.

AvidThink founder and principal Roy Chua told MWL that while the hyperscalers are continuing their unprecedented AI infrastructure capex investments in early 2025, they are doing so with “some moderation and strategic refinement”.

“While Microsoft’s investment surge is stabilising and competitors are maintaining rather than expanding their ambitious roadmaps, absolute capex figures are at historic peaks,” he explained. “This is a calculated expansion of AI capabilities rather than any fundamental retreat.

“Based on what we’re seeing so far, 2025 will be yet another landmark year for hyperscaler capex, barring exogenous demand or supply shocks, driven by the AI race towards somewhat nebulous goals.”

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The investment will support the growth of Microsoft’s existing data centre campuses and expand its set of cloud services. The tech giant opened its first data centre in Poland in 2023.

Microsoft will partner with the Polish National Defence to establish a framework to improve national cybersecurity by developing AI, cloud computing models and quantum technologies.

Poland ranks third in Europe and ninth in the world in terms of exposure to attacks from cybercriminal organisations sponsored by non-domestic nations, the Microsoft Digital Defence report reveals.

Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft (pictured, left), stated the data centre investment “is a vote of confidence in Poland’s leadership and economy”.

Smith announced the investment with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (pictured, right).

The company also committed to train up to 1 million Polish information workers, teachers, software developers and organisational leaders on AI and cybersecurity by the end of the year to help accelerate national digital transformation efforts.

Microsoft stated it spent more than $80 million in Poland over the past year to fund educational institutions, non-profit organisations, public libraries and museums.

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The regulator noted AWS and Microsoft each control around 40 per cent of the UK market for cloud services while Google has a much smaller share.

An independent inquiry group provisionally recommends investigating Microsoft and AWS under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act that went into effect earlier this month.

The CMA noted customers such as financial services, retailers, digital start-ups and key public services spent £9 billion on cloud services in 2023, a figure growing by more than 30 per cent each year.

“Effective competition in the delivery of these vital services could drive choice, quality and competitive prices, not only helping UK businesses but boosting innovation, productivity, growth and investment across the UK economy,” the CMA stated.

Kip Meek, chair of the CMA’s inquiry group, stated “competition in this market is not working as well as it could be” which is why the group is proposing the CMA conduct an investigation of “the largest cloud service providers using its new digital markets powers”.

A representative for AWS told Mobile World Live (MWL) the proposed investigation “is not warranted” and urged “the CMA to carefully consider how regulatory intervention in other areas will stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers in the UK”.

A representative for Google told MWL “restrictive licensing harms UK cloud customers, threatens economic growth, and stifles innovation, and we are encouraged that the CMA has recognised the harm of these practices”.

The UK regulator will make a final decision by the statutory deadline of 4 August 2025.

The CMA started its investigation into the cloud services market in October 2023 based on a recommendation from Ofcom.

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In a wide-ranging report looking into the relationship between cloud providers and AI developers, the regulator also took aim at deals struck by Amazon and Google with AI companies such as Anthropic.

The FTC claimed such deals could lead to big tech companies gaining undue control over AI start-ups, even fully acquiring them in the future. It criticised their “circular spending” practices, where companies like Microsoft require AI start-ups to reinvest funding into their cloud services and products, skewing market power. Microsoft’s funding of OpenAI was largely delivered as credits for its Azure cloud platform.

In the report, it was also revealed that at least one unnamed tech giant received confidential financial information from an AI start-up, including weekly revenue reports and customer updates. Another deal allowed a company to access AI-generated outputs, or “synthetic data,” used to train the tech company’s own AI models.

Concerns were also raised over the potential for such partnerships to result in the monopolisation of AI talent and resources. Additionally, exclusivity rights included in some agreements might discourage AI companies from partnering with multiple cloud providers, further disrupting competition.

In a statement, FTC chair Lina Khan claimed the report uncovers “how partnerships by big tech firms can create lock-in, deprive start-ups of key AI inputs, and reveal sensitive information that can undermine fair competition”.

The European Commission also took a look at the Microsoft OpenAI partnership in 2024. However, it opted not to launch a formal investigation because it found the AI company was not under Microsoft’s direct control.

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The Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat service is being pitched as an alternative to Microsoft 365 Copilot, which costs $30 per user/month along with an annual subscription.

Microsoft explained in a blog Copilot Chat “adds pay-as-you-go agents” to its existing free chat service.

CNBC reported the pricing is based on how the set-up is used, noting the benefit lies in companies not paying for users who do not access it, unlike the flat fees of its main AI offering.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o and enables users to create AI agents in chats using natural languages to perform automated tasks covering meeting preparation, market research or writing strategic documents.

It can retrieve information from the internet, analyse data in an Excel spreadsheet and summarise text in Word documents.

Microsoft stated it can also be used to create agents which perform tasks in the background. It pitched the service as an introduction to its broader 365 Copilot option, helping organisations “build the AI habit”.

“Moving forward, every organisation will have a mix of Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot, our best-in-class offering, to drive AI transformation at scale,” it stated.

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CNBC reported the two tech titans are donating to the Trump fund after Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon each pledged the same amount in December ahead Trump’s swearing ceremony on 20 January.

The news site stated Microsoft previously contributed $500,000 to the inauguration fund during Trump’s first term, as well as the same amount for President Joe Biden.

Axios reported last week that Apple CEO Tim Cook is also donating the same amount, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to give $1 million to the fund.

Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith stated in a blog earlier in January the company is on track to spend approximately $80 billion to build out AI-enabled data centres, with the bulk of that amount slated for the US.

With perhaps an eye towards pushing US AI policies in a favourable direction, Smith mentioned Trump nine times in his blog.

“If the Trump Administration can build upon the best AI steps that have emerged in the past four years through international AI diplomacy, including the G7, the United States will offer the world a compelling value proposition,” Smith said.

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In a blog post, Smith explained the tech giant plans to use the data centres “to train AI models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications around the world”.

While Smith welcomed US President Donald Trump to his second term in office, he cautioned against “heavy-handed regulations” that could slow down the private sector.

“The most important US public-policy priority should be to ensure that the US private sector can continue to advance with the wind at its back,” Smith stated.

He explained the US “needs a pragmatic export control policy that balances strong security protection for AI components in trusted data centres with an ability for US companies to expand rapidly and provide a reliable source of supply to the many countries that are American allies and friends”.

Smith stated the US is well-positioned to flourish in its development of AI due to solid technology development and an innovative private sector.

“If the Trump Administration can develop a strong national AI talent strategy and use AI to make the government itself more effective and efficient, it will put the country on a promising path.”

He stated the US is in a strong position to “win the essential race with China by advancing international adoption of American AI”.

Smith further claimed US “products are more trusted than their Chinese counterparts, and our private sector is unmatched in its ability to invest in infrastructure around the world”.

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