Microsoft brings Musk’s Grok AI to Azure at Build 2025

Microsoft‘s latest move to integrate Elon Musk’s Grok AI models into its Azure cloud platform signals a strategic expansion of its AI ecosystem, despite the controversial history of Musk’s chatbot. This partnership comes amid Microsoft’s ongoing investment in OpenAI and highlights the company’s ambition to position Azure as the central marketplace for AI development, regardless of the source or reputation of the models it hosts.

The big picture: Microsoft announced at its Build conference that Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models from Musk’s xAI will be available as first-party offerings directly hosted and billed through Microsoft Azure.

• Elon Musk appeared in a pre-recorded conversation with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the keynote, acknowledging that Grok has produced “bizarre and sometimes dangerous results.”
• The integration comes as Musk simultaneously teased the imminent release of Grok 3.5, urging Microsoft developers to test the models and provide feedback.

Why this matters: The Grok partnership demonstrates Microsoft’s opportunistic approach to AI integration, expanding its portfolio beyond its primary relationship with OpenAI.

• Microsoft is not replacing OpenAI’s GPT models in its Copilot assistant; in fact, it announced at the same conference that Copilot would implement OpenAI’s GPT-4o image-generation capabilities.
• This diversification strategy follows previous integrations of Meta’s Llama 2 and China’s DeepSeek R1 models into the Azure platform.

Historical context: Microsoft and xAI aren’t strangers to collaboration, having previously partnered with Nvidia on an AI infrastructure project earlier in 2025.

Reading between the lines: Nadella’s repeated characterization of Copilot as “the UI of AI” suggests Microsoft’s broader strategy is to position Azure as the comprehensive clearinghouse for generative AI development.

• This marketplace approach allows Microsoft to capitalize on the continuing AI boom while diversifying its offerings beyond its flagship OpenAI partnership.

What they’re saying: “We have and will make mistakes, but we aspire to correct them quickly,” Musk told Nadella during his Build appearance, addressing Grok’s controversial output history.