Elon Musk appears at Microsoft's Build conference to announce a partnership hosting xAI’s Grok chatbot on Azure, despite ongoing legal action against the tech giant.
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| Elon Musk collaborates with Microsoft to host Grok AI models on Azure, signaling pragmatic ties amid legal disputes and rising AI competition. Image: CH |
SEATTLE, USA — May 20, 2025:
In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk, who is currently suing Microsoft, appeared virtually at the company’s annual Build developer conference to unveil a new partnership between his artificial intelligence startup xAI and the tech giant. Musk’s Grok AI chatbot will now be hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure alongside rival models from OpenAI, Meta, and others.
“It's fantastic to have you at our developer conference,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a pre-recorded exchange with Musk, broadcast on Monday at the Seattle-based event. The announcement comes as Musk continues to pursue legal action against Microsoft and its AI affiliate OpenAI, claiming his foundational role in OpenAI has been misused.
Grok, developed by Musk’s company xAI, is a direct competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The integration of Grok into Azure underscores a pragmatic collaboration amid ongoing disputes. Microsoft also maintains partnerships with other AI model providers like Meta Platforms, European firms Mistral and Black Forest Labs, and China's DeepSeek.
The partnership follows a recent controversy where Grok began referencing racially charged topics, including "white genocide" in South Africa—Musk's home country. xAI later attributed the incident to an unauthorized internal modification and issued a fix. Musk, while not addressing the controversy directly during his conversation with Nadella, emphasized transparency in AI development: “We have and will make mistakes, but we aspire to correct them very quickly. Honesty is the best policy.”
The Build conference was briefly disrupted by a protester criticizing Microsoft’s AI work with the Israeli military, alleging its involvement in civilian casualties in Gaza. “Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians?” shouted the protester before being removed. Microsoft has acknowledged its AI collaboration with Israel but insists there is no evidence it was used to harm civilians in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Microsoft-owned GitHub announced a new AI coding “agent” aimed at automating routine programming tasks. The upgraded tool builds on the success of GitHub Copilot, offering more autonomous assistance with low-to-medium complexity software work.
The showcase of AI innovation comes just days after Microsoft began laying off nearly 6,000 employees globally, including hundreds from Washington’s Puget Sound area, highlighting the paradox of growth in AI development amid job cuts in traditional software roles.