Microsoft adds Elon Musk’s Grok AI to Azure cloud

Microsoft has partnered with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, to bring its Grok AI models to the Azure cloud platform, despite recent criticism over the chatbot’s politically charged and racially controversial outputs.

Announced at Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference, the collaboration will see Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini hosted on Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft’s platform for enterprise-ready AI models.

The move expands Azure’s portfolio of generative AI systems, which already includes models from OpenAI, Meta, Stability AI, and Mistral.

The announcement comes on the heels of backlash against xAI’s Grok after the chatbot referenced conspiracy theories and made inflammatory claims about South Africa.

Grok is now on Azure - available for FREE through early June!

Try it out in Azure Foundry and GitHub.https://t.co/JEZokON2iz https://t.co/tyENu5wZJp

— xAI (@xai) May 19, 2025

The company attributed the incident to an “unauthorised modification” and has since introduced internal reforms, including public release of system prompts, enhanced review protocols, and a 24/7 monitoring team.

Elon Musk, speaking during a recorded conversation with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, emphasised the importance of grounding AI in reality.

“Our models aspire to truth with minimal error,” Musk said, acknowledging that mistakes are inevitable but promising transparency when they occur.

Microsoft will offer Grok models on Azure with stricter controls, including service-level agreements, direct billing, and enterprise-grade governance.

This aligns with Microsoft’s broader strategy to dominate the cloud-based AI infrastructure market. Azure now hosts over 1,900 AI models, although competitors like Google and Anthropic have not yet joined the platform.

Despite the controversy, Microsoft is positioning itself as a neutral platform provider, enabling access to a diverse range of AI tools.

“To make AI agents truly effective, they need the ability to connect with everything in the world,” said Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott.

The inclusion of Grok comes amid wider changes at Microsoft, which is reported to be laying off around 6,000 employees globally as it shifts towards AI-led efficiency.

The integration of Grok marks a significant step for both Microsoft and xAI, as competition intensifies in the AI chatbot, generative AI, and cloud AI services markets.