Microsoft · Palantir · Copilot · Amazon · OpenAI · CNBC Technology
Microsoft commits $2.5 billion and 6,000 employees to new AI implementation unit
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Microsoft is investing $2.5 billion into a new group focused on assisting clients with AI implementations, becoming the latest tech company to commit hefty resources to helping businesses understand and adopt emerging artificial intelligence technologies.
Key facts
- The announcement comes two days after cloud rival Amazon said it was putting $1 billion behind an FDE initiative to support fast-paced AI engagements
- Microsoft is investing $2.5 billion into a new group focused on assisting clients with AI implementations, becoming the latest tech company to commit hefty resources to helping businesses understand
- The Microsoft 365 Copilot AI assistant has yet to gain anything approaching ubiquity in the business world, and the GitHub Copilot coding agent has ceded market share to newer players
- Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, said the FDE effort stems from the realization that "customers are in different places right now, and trying to figure out AI
Summary
With the new venture, called Microsoft Frontier Co., the software vendor said Thursday that 6,000 employees will be embedded with clients, in a practice that's become known as forward deployed engineering. The announcement comes two days after cloud rival Amazon said it was putting $1 billion behind an FDE initiative to support fast-paced AI engagements. Alongside its technology peers, Microsoft has sunk tens of billions of dollars into building data centers that run generative AI models. Microsoft's stock has slumped 21% this year, by far the worst performance among the mega-cap tech companies.