Microsoft Looks Beyond OpenAI, To Host Elon Musk’s Grok on Azure

Microsoft is preparing to integrate Elon Musk’s Grok AI model into its Azure cloud service, according to a report by The Verge. The tech giant has been in discussions with Musk’s startup xAI to make Grok available to developers and product teams via Azure AI Foundry, its platform for hosting and managing AI applications.

The move suggests a possible shift in Microsoft’s AI alliances amid rising tensions between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018, sued the company in 2023, claiming it abandoned its original mission to develop AI “for the benefit of humanity.” OpenAI filed a countersuit last month.

Grok will be hosted on Azure AI Foundry, giving developers access to the model for application development. Microsoft clarified that while it will provide hosting infrastructure, it will not supply compute for training future Grok versions. A source told The Verge the deal’s exclusivity remains uncertain, suggesting Grok could appear on platforms like Amazon Web Services.

The integration is part of Microsoft’s broader effort to expand its AI portfolio beyond OpenAI. The company has recently tested models from Meta, China’s DeepSeek, and xAI for its Copilot products.

Meanwhile, media reports point to increasing friction between Microsoft and OpenAI over compute resources and model access. The Wall Street Journal noted that Nadella and Altman are “drifting apart,” citing Nadella’s hiring of Mustafa Suleyman as an “insurance policy” against potential instability in the OpenAI partnership.Still, Altman recently posted a Studio Ghibli-style image of himself giving Nadella a tour of OpenAI’s new office, suggesting some public alignment remains between the two.