Musk Partners With Microsoft Despite OpenAI Lawsuit \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ Elon Musk’s xAI is partnering with Microsoft Azure to host its Grok AI chatbot, despite ongoing legal tensions with Microsoft and OpenAI. Musk’s announcement came during a pre-recorded video at Microsoft’s Build 2024 conference. The event was also marked by protests over Microsoft’s ties to Israel and new AI tools for developers.
Quick Looks
- Grok Hosted on Azure: Musk’s xAI selects Microsoft’s cloud platform to host Grok models.
- OpenAI Lawsuit Continues: Musk is still suing Microsoft and OpenAI over OpenAI’s development.
- AI Model Competition Grows: Azure now supports Grok alongside OpenAI, Meta, DeepSeek, Mistral, and others.
- Controversial Grok Content Fixed: xAI blamed rogue employee edits for chatbot’s racially charged responses.
- Protests at Build Conference: Microsoft event disrupted by staff criticizing Israeli military ties.
- New AI Coding Agent Debuts: GitHub introduces autonomous AI assistant for software development.
- Layoffs Follow Launch: Microsoft announced 6,000 global job cuts just days before the event.
- Nadella, Altman, Musk Speak: Microsoft CEO spoke with both Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman on AI futures.
Deep Look
In a surprise appearance that blurred the lines between competition and collaboration, Elon Musk joined Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the opening day of the Build 2024 developer conference to announce that his Grok AI chatbot—developed by xAI—will now be hosted on Microsoft Azure’s cloud platform.
The move comes even as Musk continues legal action against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging misuse of his foundational work in the latter’s formation and operations. Despite the court battles, Musk’s xAI has entered a cloud computing deal that will place Grok alongside AI competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta’s Llama, DeepSeek, and Mistral on Azure.
“It’s fantastic to have you at our developer conference,” Nadella said to Musk in a pre-recorded video segment aired Monday.
Musk vs. Microsoft: Conflict and Cooperation
Last year, Musk sued both OpenAI—which he helped co-found—and Microsoft, its largest commercial backer, accusing them of steering OpenAI away from its nonprofit roots. Musk now heads his own AI venture, xAI, which produces Grok, a rival chatbot he integrated into his social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Despite their courtroom dispute, Microsoft and Musk have managed to carve out a business deal to host xAI’s latest Grok models on Azure. It highlights the complexity of today’s AI ecosystem, where legal rivalry coexists with strategic necessity.
Grok’s Recent Controversy: AI or Editorial Bias?
The Azure announcement also comes on the heels of a public relations challenge for Grok. Just last week, users noted that the chatbot was injecting unsolicited commentary on South African politics, referencing “white genocide”—a controversial and racially charged narrative. xAI attributed the issue to an “unauthorized modification” by an employee.
While Musk didn’t reference the controversy directly during his Build appearance, he acknowledged the importance of transparency in AI safety.
“We have and will make mistakes,” Musk said. “But we aspire to correct them very quickly.”
Protest Disrupts Nadella’s Opening Speech
The Build 2024 conference also became the latest target of protest over Microsoft’s involvement with Israel’s military. Just minutes into Nadella’s keynote, a protesting Microsoft employee interrupted:
“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”
The protester was removed from the venue, but not before drawing attention to Microsoft’s previously disclosed AI service contracts with Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Microsoft later stated that it had no evidence Azure was used to target civilians in Gaza, but has not publicly elaborated.
The company did not immediately respond to media requests for comment regarding the protest.
GitHub Unveils New AI Coding Agent
Alongside the AI hosting announcements, GitHub—a Microsoft subsidiary—introduced a new autonomous coding agent, designed to assist developers in building software with low-to-medium complexity tasks.
While Microsoft already markets GitHub Copilot, the new AI tool advances the concept by autonomously handling repetitive coding jobs, letting engineers “focus on interesting work,” the company said.
The agent was introduced just a week after Microsoft laid off around 6,000 employees, including software engineers from its Washington state headquarters, raising questions about the company’s balance between AI expansion and workforce cuts.
A Future Where Rivals Share the Cloud
Despite past rivalries and lawsuits, Musk’s decision to bring Grok to Azure illustrates a reality of the modern AI landscape: infrastructure alliances often transcend business disputes. With AI tools growing more compute-hungry, the availability and power of cloud platforms like Azure are critical—even for adversaries.
Meanwhile, Musk continues to position xAI and Grok as truth-driven AI tools, differentiating them from more censored or corporate-aligned counterparts. The tension between innovation, control, and safety is likely to remain at the center of both xAI’s mission and the broader AI debate.
Musk Partners With
