Nobody would deny that large tech requires big investments to kickstart them and maintain the ball rolling, however in some unspecified time in the future, multi-billion greenback expenditures require some type of return earlier than they change into a misplaced trigger. In the case of Microsoft and AI, that is not one thing being thought of, because the software program big plans on spending $80 billion {dollars} on machine studying expertise this yr.
Microsoft casually dropped the monstrously big sum of cash in a long-winded weblog by Brad Smith, Vice Chair & President of Microsoft, titled ‘The Golden Opportunity for American AI‘ (by way of The Register). It begins by making it clear that AI may be very a lot the primary focus proper now, and that advances in AI expertise and infrastructure have to proceed. Microsoft additionally needs to advertise coaching applications to get extra folks working within the area and it additionally needs America, as a complete, to export its AI techniques to “allies and associates.”
To guarantee all this occurs, “Microsoft is on monitor to speculate roughly $80 billion to construct out AI-enabled datacenters to coach AI fashions and deploy AI and cloud-based functions around the globe.”
That type of cash makes the $10 billion it invested in OpenAI, again in 2023, appear to be chump change. It’s equal to nearly all of Microsoft’s internet earnings in 2024. I do know ridiculously giant sums of cash and AI simply appear to be the norm nowadays, however $80 billion actually is bonkers.
No firm would spend that type of cash, although, if it did not have a transparent plan on the way to recoup the funding and make a good return from it. So what can we count on to see from Microsoft on this regard?
In its most up-to-date monetary assertion, CEO Satya Nadella notes that “[our] progress will depend on securely delivering steady innovation and advancing our main productiveness and collaboration instruments and companies, together with Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, and Dynamics 365” and that “digital transformation and adoption of AI continues to revolutionize extra enterprise workstreams for organizations in each sector throughout the globe.”
In different phrases, since AI is already front-and-centre in each software program bundle that Microsoft makes proper now, one ought to count on to see it being promoted much more so. If you had been hoping that the lacklustre gross sales of AI-ready PCs would imply the top of Copilot and Recall, then you are going to be disenchanted.
The weblog additionally talks about how Microsoft expects AI to finally change into one other GPT or general-purpose expertise as a result of AI will apparently simply be like electrical energy, ironworking, and laptop chips in the identical manner they’ve “increase[ed] innovation and productiveness throughout the economic system.” To me, that feels like Microsoft needs its Azure AI service to be ubiquitous within the enterprise world, with each firm tapping into its machine studying subscription companies.
PC gaming has, to this point, prevented the total onslaught of AI, LLMs, and whatnot, however I would not be shocked if 2025 is the yr that it actually kicks off. It’ll be fascinating to see what AI stuff will get talked about at CES this week as a result of it is going to give us a clue as to how unhealthy (or good, let’s be truthful right here) issues may change into.
