Microsoft Azure now supports over 1,900 AI models, including Musk’s Grok 3

Microsoft announced on Monday that it will now host technology developed by Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, on its cloud servers, marking a significant partnership between two tech giants despite recent backlash over the behaviour of xAI's models.

The collaboration was revealed during a Microsoft-hosted event where Musk addressed growing concerns about the performance and reliability of xAI's language models. This development comes just days after xAI’s systems generated controversial content, including references to the racially charged phrase "white genocide" in the context of South Africa—sparking widespread criticism across social media and industry circles.

At the event, Musk acknowledged the missteps but defended the company's broader mission. "Our models aspire to truth with minimal error," he said. "Of course, there's always going to be some mistakes that are made, but we are working to improve rapidly.”

Earlier this year, Elon Musk’s AI venture introduced Grok 3, and it will now be accessible through Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform, the company announced on Monday.

Tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc., and Google are in fierce competition to become the preferred platform for developing and running AI applications. This rivalry has turned cloud infrastructure into a key battleground, with companies racing to host cutting-edge AI models and provide advanced tools for managing their use.

Microsoft announced that users of its Azure cloud platform now have access to over 1,900 AI model variations, including those developed by its close collaborator OpenAI, as well as models from Meta Platforms Inc. and DeepSeek. The inclusion of Elon Musk’s Grok models further expands the offerings. However, major players like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and rising AI firm Anthropic are still missing from the lineup.

At the kickoff of Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference on Monday, many of the highlights focused on new tools aimed at managing AI agents—systems that can perform tasks on behalf of users. Microsoft also revealed that its Windows operating system, along with other products, will support Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol, a framework created to standardise interactions between AI systems.

“To make AI agents truly effective, they need the ability to connect with everything in the world,” said Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott during a presentation on Sunday at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft and its subsidiary GitHub have also joined the steering committee of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which aims to standardise how AI systems interact.

Microsoft has established itself as a major player in the AI space, largely due to its substantial investment in OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT. The company has integrated AI into a wide range of tools for both office professionals and developers, betting that the boost in productivity and automation will outweigh the enormous costs of the infrastructure—servers and data centers—needed to support these innovations.

At its Build developer conference on Monday, Microsoft unveiled several new tools and features to support businesses and developers working with generative AI. These include a model leaderboard to track top-performing AI systems, a feature that helps developers automatically choose the most suitable model for a specific task, and new solutions for companies looking to train custom AI models using their proprietary data.