#Microsoft

Microsoft Patent Tips Using Idle Gaming PCs to Train AI in Exchange for Rewards

Microsoft Technology Licensing filed a 2025 patent, published last week as US-20260349820-A1 and titled "Opportunistic Micro-training on Edge Devices Using Spare GPU Utilization," describing an opt-in system that uses idle GPU cycles on gaming PCs for AI training, similar to Folding@Home. The system would monitor memory, CPU, GPU, temperature and power draw to find cool idle periods, track completed work, and issue credits redeemable for use of the resulting AI model, free software or cash, with manual start/stop and usage limits.

The AI graveyard: a running list of projects and startups that didn’t make it

This roundup catalogs AI products, startups, and corporate initiatives that shut down, pivoted, or missed expectations, including Character.ai's bankruptcy filing, Ollie's shutdown, OpenAI's discontinued Atlas browser and Sora, and hardware failures like the Humane AI Pin. It cites S&P Global Market Intelligence's estimate that about 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by their corporate parents, attributing failures to insufficient funding, technical challenges, competition, scaling difficulty, or weak user demand.

Nebius tests the neocloud playbook with $40 billion in planned spending

Nebius outlined $40 billion in planned 2027 spending on its Q3 earnings call, funded largely through customer prepayments and contract-backed loans. Its Microsoft contract, worth up to $19.4 billion, is already slipping, with only just over half of the New Jersey capacity planned for delivery by year-end and the rest in Q2 2027, after operator DataOne wound down temporary generation faster than expected. Nebius cut its 2026 revenue forecast by $200 million to $3 billion and shares fell 17%.

US companies are seeking fewer foreign developers, and more "AI engineers"

Department of Labor LCA data show software-developer H-1B filings fell 36% from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026 (October–June comparisons), with new-hire filings down 46%, while filings carrying AI job titles reached 1.8% of all certified H-1B filings in fiscal 2026. AI-titled filings rose 80% for titles spelling out "machine learning" or "artificial intelligence," and shorter titles such as "AI engineer" supplied 92% of the latest year's increase, with employers outside the five largest accounting for 85% of AI-titled filings. Microsoft's software filings fell 44% and Google's 33%, while Nvidia's nearly quadrupled and Amazon's rose 34%.

Anthropic sets IPO price range of $70 to $78 per share to reach an implied valuation of $1.404 trillion

Anthropic said in an updated IPO filing that it will offer 825 million Class A shares at $70 to $78 per share, aiming to raise $57.75 billion to $64.35 billion and reach an implied valuation of $1.404 trillion at the top of the range on a fully diluted basis. The company also agreed to privately sell $26 billion of non-voting Class N stock at the IPO price to AMD, Broadcom, Google, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia and TSMC, with Google and Nvidia investing $10 billion each, and expects to begin trading on the Nasdaq around November 19 under the ticker "ANT". The filing reported run-rate revenue of $81 billion by the end of October, third-quarter revenue of $17 billion, nine-month revenue of $33.2 billion and a nine-month net loss of $104 billion.

Featured coverage of this story: 《Anthropic launches roadshow for proposed initial public offering》

Eight countries and top AI labs agree to shutdown mechanisms in new Paris declaration

Representatives of eight countries, tech companies and civil-society organizations signed the "Paris Call for AI Safety and Security" on Nov. 9, ahead of the Paris Peace Forum, with Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Brad Smith, Arthur Mensch, Yoshua Bengio and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joining the declaration during an online meeting with Emmanuel Macron; Germany did not sign. The document covers shared procedures for evaluating high-capability AI models, clearer developer accountability and better information sharing on serious security incidents, and companies pledge to disclose known risks, support risk-proportionate independent audits and set up shutdown mechanisms for models under their control. It creates no binding international oversight system, deadlines or sanctions, since shared standards and cooperation procedures still have to be worked out.

Anthropic kicks off IPO roadshow, offering shares at $70 to $78 and targeting a trillion-dollar valuation

Anthropic is pitching investors on an IPO of 825 million Class A shares priced at $70 to $78, targeting a valuation of up to $1.02 trillion, with the offering plus a $26 billion private placement potentially raising up to $90.4 billion. The company reported Q3 revenue of $16.96 billion, up 47 percent quarter over quarter, alongside a commitment to nearly $900 billion in compute capacity with partners including Amazon and Google. The stock will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker "ANT," with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading the underwriting syndicate.

Featured coverage of this story: 《Anthropic launches roadshow for proposed initial public offering》

Microsoft patent describes using idle gaming GPUs into paid AI training hardware

A VideoCardz report discusses a Microsoft patent describing the use of idle gaming GPU capacity for paid AI training. The item links to the VideoCardz article and a Hacker News discussion thread.

Protesters slam AI after entering Microsoft data centre site

Protesters broke into a Microsoft data centre site in Amsterdam on Friday (6 November), hanging anti-AI banners and spray-painting graffiti during a demonstration against the facility on the outskirts of the Dutch capital. More than 100 activists gathered at the site and eventually entered it, with protester Sam van der Beek saying demonstrators opposed "this whole AI infrastructure" and that data centres are "destroying our world." The protest kicked off two days of rallies against energy used for AI buildouts, with other planned actions including a march in Dublin, a protest outside the parliament building in Warsaw, and a demonstration against a different Microsoft data centre in Denmark.

Professional work deserves professional tools. Meet AWS Quick.

AWS announced its first brand campaign for AWS Quick, an AI workspace built only for work where teams use AI agents to research, analyze, and act across the data and applications they already rely on. The campaign runs in the United States and the United Kingdom on streaming TV, online video, social media, and leading business publications, and cites enterprises including 3M, BMW, Mondelez, New York Life, and Southwest Airlines as users. AWS says Quick has no consumer version and integrates with security and compliance tools such as Microsoft Purview, AWS IAM, and Microsoft Active Directory, and carries certifications including HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 2, and ISO 27001.

AI Live Speech Rewriting Patent

Microsoft has filed a patent application (US 2026/0341309 A1) for a system that uses AI to identify and replace words in live speech based on a user profile, then redraws the speaker's mouth in the video so the lips match, with short blended transitions hiding the seams. The same setup could act as a translator, swapping words in languages missing from the profile and redrawing lips to match, with a delay of a few seconds. The filing names AR glasses, phones, tablets and video cameras as possible devices, and notes the examiner's first review rejected the claims as filed.

Microsoft Researcher John Langford Exits. AI Frontiers Group Declared Finished

According to Business Examiner, Microsoft researcher John Langford has exited the company, and the AI Frontiers group has been declared finished. The item links to a Hacker News discussion with 75 points and 18 comments.

Microsoft Winding Down Oracle Deal to Rent AI Cloud Capacity

Bloomberg reports that Microsoft is winding down its deal with Oracle to rent AI cloud capacity. The article is available at the linked Bloomberg URL, with discussion on Hacker News.

Protesters break into Microsoft AI data centre site in Amsterdam

More than 100 activists broke into a Microsoft data centre construction site in Amsterdam, climbing cranes and hanging anti-AI banners. The action marks the start of two days of coordinated protests across 16 countries against the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure.

Microsoft plans to use fewer neoclouds as AI buildout shows signs of strain

Microsoft is evaluating which neocloud partners to stop using as it prioritizes its own data centers, according to people familiar with the matter, and it opted not to renew a deal with Oracle. The company has worked with CoreWeave, Nebius, Chronoscale, IREN, Lambda and Nscale, and has already scaled back work with Nscale, including a site in England and a Texas contract. Neocloud shares have fallen sharply amid rising borrowing costs and debt concerns, and Microsoft reported $45.2 billion in capital expenditures and finance leases in its latest quarter.

Microsoft is winding down Oracle deal to rent AI cloud capacity

Reuters reports, citing Bloomberg News, that Microsoft is winding down a deal to rent AI cloud capacity from Oracle. The article link and Hacker News discussion link are provided; no further details are given in the supplied material.

Protesters break into Microsoft data center site in Amsterdam

Protesters broke into a Microsoft data center construction site in Amsterdam, where around 100 people entered and some scaled a crane to hang a "fuck AI" banner, according to Reuters. The Geef Tegensag group helped organize the protest against three 85-meter data center towers, with banners including "Microsoft powers genocide" and chants of "Microsoft has got to go" and "free Palestine." The site, built by British developer Pure Data Centres with Microsoft as sole tenant, is proceeding under plans dating to 2016, before Amsterdam banned new data centers until 2030.

AI stock selloffs fuel fears Big Tech's best quarters are over

A selloff in major technology stocks this week, with the Nasdaq 100 falling about 4% and wiping out more than $1 trillion in value, reflected investor fears that massive AI spending won't pay off soon. Quarterly results from Amazon, Alphabet, ServiceNow and Meta disappointed, while Intel shares plunged more than 30% after a weak outlook tied partly to an October factory explosion in Israel. Analysts said investors are trimming tech gains rather than exiting equities, though some remain optimistic about the sector's long-term prospects.

Big Tech’s big AI buildout will not end until someone stops it

Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta told investors they plan to spend at least $720 billion on capital expenditures this year, mostly on AI infrastructure, on top of at least $1 trillion in commitments for coming years, even though they have not yet made money from AI. Alphabet posted its worst one-day stock drop, sinking 13%, after acknowledging that Google Cloud's AI-driven growth came at the expense of its core Search business, where ad revenue growth slowed to 12% from 17% a year earlier. Microsoft was the only one of the four to avoid Wall Street's ire, reporting $45.2 billion in quarterly capex, below the expected $50 billion, due to third-party capacity delays, and it later announced a $25 billion bond sale.

AI Data Centers Turn to Decommissioned Jet Engines as Grid Queues Stretch Years

Facing grid connection waits of about seven years in places like Northern Virginia, AI companies including xAI and Crusoe are buying converted jet engines from suppliers such as ProEnergy to generate power on-site in roughly 24 months. The units are less fuel-efficient and more polluting than purpose-built turbines, and state permits for xAI's Mississippi installation allow higher emissions limits. Analysts describe the approach as a short-term fix, with Google opting to wait for grid-connected power instead.

Data centers are turning to old jet engines as the wait for power grows

Some AI data centers are using converted jet engines rebuilt to burn natural gas to generate their own electricity, as grid connections and new turbines face years-long waits, the New York Times reported. Rystad Energy analyst Audun Martinsen said jet-powered units can have a data center running in 24 months, compared with about seven years to hook up 100 megawatts to the grid in Northern Virginia, according to the IEA. xAI has installed eight converted jet-engine turbines in Mississippi for its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, and Crusoe ordered 13 of ProEnergy's converted units in April for OpenAI's Stargate site in Abilene, Texas.

Goldman Sachs pulls AI coding tools from traders and bankers

Goldman Sachs has cut off most employees, including traders and bankers, from advanced AI coding tools such as Anthropic's Claude Code and Microsoft's GitHub, leaving access to engineers only, per Bloomberg citing internal October guidelines. A Goldman spokesperson cited "a variety of factors including productivity and risk management" and said the experimentation phase is over, with tools now limited to those best suited to use them long term. The rollback reportedly causes frustration inside the firm, after CIO Marco Argenti had praised "vibe coding" by non-technical staff in July.

Google, Anthropic and others to support new AI crawling opt-out standard

Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI announced plans to support an upcoming website crawling standard that would let site operators block AI developers from using their content for training with a single robots.txt entry. The companies have submitted a draft proposal to the Internet Engineering Task Force to incorporate the standard into the Robots Exclusion Protocol, with Microsoft and OpenAI planning support in the coming months and Google next year. Microsoft will also offer an "AI Grounding" setting to block requests made to answer user questions rather than collect training data, while Meta expressed support for the idea but hasn't committed to implementing it.

The AI boom spawns job market for data-center liaisons

A Semafor analysis found that hyperscalers, AI labs, and data-center developers are advertising six-figure roles for policy specialists who can win over local communities where data centers are planned. Microsoft seeks people to lead messaging and community relations for its data center buildout, while Google's "data center strategic negotiator" applicants should be ready to "deploy on short notice to contested municipal hearings, planning commissions, and community town halls to counter misinformation." Anthropic advertises a salary floor of $265,000 for people willing to spend half their time traveling in increasingly hostile territory.

How AI may drive union-resistant tech workers to the bargaining table

Tech workers at companies including Google DeepMind and Meta in the UK are attempting to unionize amid AI-related layoffs, increased workloads and concerns over how AI products are used, with the Alphabet Workers Union reporting that total union actions at Alphabet doubled in 2025 from the year prior. The article notes that AI's workplace effects are not unique to software companies, citing a University of California IT worker survey in which 65% reported taking on more work due to a vacant position and only 22% felt secure in their jobs, and points to contracts at ZeniMax and Kickstarter that included AI-related protections.

Amazon sends chills through its workforce with mixed message memo about AI use

The Register reports on an Amazon memo about AI use that sent mixed messages to its workforce, with the article attributed to Corey Quinn. The piece is dated October 31, 2026, and drew 20 points and 8 comments on Hacker News.

Microsoft offers a quarter of its workforce voluntary severance while shielding AI-critical teams

Microsoft is offering voluntary severance packages to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of its workforce, covering staff at vice president level or below in the U.S., Canada, India, and the UK. Xbox, Windows, Copilot, and Finance are fully included, while data centers, sales, cybersecurity, and quantum computing are excluded. It is the company's second such program in 2026, after buyouts to 8,750 U.S. employees in May and 4,800 job cuts in July, with headcount still around 223,000 as CFO Amy Hood says Microsoft plans to spend about $170 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026.

Google Adopts New AI Training Control

Google said it plans to voluntarily adopt an IETF AIPREF proposal that lets websites express AI training preferences across multiple AI providers in a single step via a shared policy token in robots.txt, with implementation planned for early 2027. Google said that when a site uses the token to opt out and Google-Extended is not explicitly specified, it plans to interpret that as disallowing Google-Extended, while existing company-specific controls continue to function alongside the new signal. The draft reflects feedback from publishers, civil society and regulators, and Google says it is consistent with the EU Code of Practice for GPAI model providers under the EU AI Act.

Cracks are emerging in the AI spending boom

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft have outlined more than $740 billion in capital expenditures this year, and investors are growing anxious about negative free cash flow, mounting debt, and whether the spending will pay off. Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of $9.1 billion in the third quarter as capex rose to $51.4 billion, while Amazon posted negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion over the past 12 months and Meta reported negative free cash flow of $2.1 billion; Microsoft was the exception with $18.6 billion in positive free cash flow. The anxiety hit markets, with the Nasdaq falling 2.9% and chip stocks dropping, and the Financial Times reported that Blackstone warned Anthropic might not qualify for an investment-grade rating after its IPO.

The biggest names in AI are backing a new way to opt out of scraping

OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic say they will adopt a shared "policy token" signal, proposed by Anthropic's Kevin Kelley within the IETF, that publishers can place in their robots.txt file to apply AI training preferences across multiple AI companies instead of setting them individually. The companies say they will restrict their AI crawlers from accessing a site when they encounter the token, though Microsoft will offer more granular controls for opting out of AI training or AI grounding and notes sites will still appear in Bing search results. Anthropic has already adopted the signal, Google and Microsoft plan to support it next year, and OpenAI says it will implement it in the "coming months."

US tech stocks see sharp falls over AI cost fears

US tech stocks slid as concerns intensified over the rising costs of the AI build-out, with Intel falling as much as 30% after warning of a weaker computer market while planning to increase AI spending, and Amazon dropping as far as 6% after earnings fell short of expectations. The tech-heavy Nasdaq opened Friday at its lowest level in more than two months, down 2.5%, while Reddit fell 26% and Roblox nearly 20%. The losses follow Alphabet's value plunging by more than $500bn on Thursday after it revealed its AI summaries were affecting core search advertising revenue.

Musk, Zuckerberg push to rebrand AI as 'super intelligence' on earnings calls

After President Trump ordered the term "super intelligence" to replace artificial intelligence in executive branch departments and agencies, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg used the term on their earnings calls, with Musk saying Tesla's robots aren't using "any kind of advanced AI or SI" and Zuckerberg citing Meta's "goal of delivering personal superintelligence to everyone." Other tech CEOs largely kept using "AI," including Amazon's Andy Jassy, Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, though Microsoft's annual report and IBM's Arvind Krishna also used "super intelligence."

Wikipedia’s operator says a bad AI copyright ruling could threaten the open web

The Wikimedia Foundation filed an amicus brief in the lawsuits between publishers including The New York Times and OpenAI and Microsoft, taking neither side and warning that an overly simplified fair use ruling could either deprive Wikipedians of useful AI tools or endanger the open web. It proposes that scraping and unlicensed pre-training be treated as fair use when the output is transformative, but that models reproducing material in response to queries and supplanting readers' engagement with the originals should require a license.

Google value plunges by $500B as AI fears rattle Wall Street

Alphabet lost just over $500bn in market value on Thursday, with its stock hitting a six-month low, after its quarterly update showed AI summaries on Search were affecting ad revenue and profits fell 25% even as total revenue grew 25% to $127.6bn. Microsoft and Amazon also reported this week, with Amazon shares falling 6% after hours on negative free cash flow of $42bn, while Microsoft's shares fell less than 1%. Analysts quoted said the results highlight the challenge of funding massive AI investments while sustaining established businesses, and where AI value will ultimately be captured.

Microsoft’s AI future has fewer jobs

Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to around 60,000 employees in the US, UK, Canada, and India, part of an effort to lower operating costs and headcount while protecting AI infrastructure investment. The company now employs around 223,000 people as of June 30th, down 5,000 year over year, and eligible employees have until December to decide on the offer. The piece also covers Dan Greenawalt's departure from Turn 10 Studios, a reported title for The Elder Scrolls VI, and the exit of Xbox's first COO Helen Chiang.

🤖 Microsoft is making room for machines

Microsoft offered a voluntary exit to around 60,000 employees across the US, UK, Canada, and India, about 27% of its 223,000 workers, with even vice presidents eligible. The post argues that neither Covid-era overhiring nor AI is a clean explanation, noting revenue per employee is up two-thirds since 2022 to $1.5 million and margins are at record highs. It frames the offer as a bet on running far leaner, and says the rest of the post unpacks that bet and the signals that will show whether it pays off.

AI build-out hits snag as Google and Microsoft put off raising capex forecasts

Microsoft cut its annual capex forecast to $170 billion from $175 billion and Alphabet held guidance at $195 billion to $205 billion, both below analyst estimates. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood cited delays from third-party GPU providers pushing some capacity into the first half of 2027, while Alphabet shares fell about 10% in extended trading after missing on earnings and revenue and reporting negative free cash flow over $9 billion. Neocloud shares including CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN dropped after the reports, though Hood said she expects capital spending to accelerate in the first half of 2027.

Microsoft hits 10 quarters of record-breaking revenue in a row

Microsoft reported record quarterly revenue of $92.3 billion, up 19% year over year, marking its 10th consecutive quarter of record-breaking revenue, with net income of $36.6 billion, up 32% on a GAAP basis. Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $63.9 billion, up 30%, including $33.2 billion from Azure and $10 billion from OpenAI, while Devices and Consumer revenue fell 3% to $15.5 billion and Windows OEM and devices revenue dropped 22%. Commercial remaining performance obligation rose 73% to $677 billion, and capital expenditures topped $45.2 billion, another quarterly record.

Microsoft recorded $10 billion in revenue from OpenAI

Microsoft said in a regulatory filing that it generated $10 billion in revenue from commercial arrangements with OpenAI, including revenue-sharing payments, in the quarter ended September 30—nearly 11% of its $92.3 billion total quarterly revenue. Revenue from OpenAI reached $24.1 billion for the full 2026 fiscal year, and Microsoft reported $7.2 billion in outstanding receivables from OpenAI at the end of September, up from $6 billion at the end of June. Microsoft's ownership stake in OpenAI declined slightly from about 25% in June to 24% in September.

Microsoft just shared Azure’s actual revenue in dollars: $33.2 billion

Microsoft reported Azure revenue of $33.2 billion for the July–September quarter, up 48% year over year, marking the first time it has disclosed Azure's quarterly revenue in dollars. Alphabet said Google Cloud brought in $30.7 billion in the same quarter, slightly below Azure but growing about twice as fast. Azure accounted for roughly 36% of Microsoft's $92.3 billion in quarterly revenue and came in about $850 million above the $32.3 billion analysts expected.