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Microsoft has taken a bold step in AI by unveiling two in-house models, marking a major milestone in its journey toward independence from third-party technologies.
While the company already invests heavily in OpenAI and uses GPT for its Copilot services, this move signals Microsoft’s ambition to build its own foundation in artificial intelligence.
The launch reflects a strategy to balance efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and scalability, while also sending a strong message that Microsoft wants a deeper seat at the AI table.
New AI Models Enter Testing Phase
The first model, MAI-Voice-1, is Microsoft’s natural speech generation system. It already powers Copilot Daily and Podcast features, showcasing practical integration.
Alongside it, MAI-1-preview emerges as the company’s first end-to-end foundation model, with availability for public testing through LMArena. In the coming weeks, it will also appear in selected Copilot experiences, expanding its reach.
In an interview with Semafor, Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, emphasized that these models were developed with efficiency at their core. MAI-Voice-1 runs on a single GPU, while MAI-1-preview was trained on about 15,000 Nvidia H-100 GPUs.
For context, competing models like xAI’s Grok required more than 100,000 GPUs, highlighting Microsoft’s focus on optimization. Suleyman explained that effective training depends on carefully selecting data rather than wasting resources on less meaningful tokens.
Although Microsoft continues to rely on GPT technology for Copilot, the decision to develop in-house AI models demonstrates a strong commitment to reducing reliance on external players. Suleyman revealed that Microsoft has mapped out a five-year roadmap, with aggressive quarterly investments to ensure steady progress. However, with growing industry concerns about an AI bubble, Microsoft faces pressure to prove its independent path will yield long-term benefits.
