Azure model set to anchor Microsoft’s next big AI push

Two weeks after announcing its foundational artificial intelligence (AI) models for transcriptions, voice and images, Big Tech firm Microsoft wants to use its Azure cloud business strategy to sign long-term Al contracts with clients.

- Shouvik Das [e-mail]

Microsoft's business model for Azure has found success in the past 12 years of chief executive Satya Nadella’s tenure. The company, which follows a July-June financial cycle, reported $281.7 billion in revenue in FY25, out of which its cloud revenue hit $106.2 billion. Microsoft accounts for roughly one-fourth of the entire global cloud services industry's annual revenue, which reached $419 billion in 2025, as per market research firm Synergy Group.

In an interview with Mint, Jay Parikh, executive vice-president and member of Microsoft's global leadership team, said the company will seek to use the same playbook for Al as well.

“We currently have 11,000 models and 80,000 customers of it in our ‘foundry’ and this number changes very rapidly. Our go-to market strategy is to offer our customers a fully flexible Al platform where clients can use a toggle to choose the safest Al model that might be slower in performance or the most cutting-edge ‘frontier’ AI models too. This includes our own AI models as well that we just intro-” Parikh said.