Microsoft restructures AI division to pursue independent superintelligence development after October partnership agreement with OpenAI

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, assembled a Superintelligence team since October to train frontier models independently. Microsoft announced seven new models across modalities at Build this week.

The shift follows a new contract with OpenAI that allowed Microsoft to pursue superintelligence independently while continuing to buy and license OpenAI's models. Previously, the division focused on consumer products; now it focuses on frontier model training.

Suleyman stated that superintelligence is coming and Microsoft must build world-class models to stand independently rather than remain dependent on third-party IP, citing the company's scale (493 of the 500 largest companies use Azure, M365, and Teams).