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Microsoft Launches AI Strategy Reset, Elevates Rolf Harms to Rework Economics

Satya Nadella frames the shift as a cloud-era style overhaul to align AI investments with viable returns.

Overview

  • An internal memo called for Microsoft to rapidly rethink the economics of AI across the company, echoing its earlier cloud transformation.
  • Rolf Harms takes an expanded remit beyond AI infrastructure to advise on capital allocation, product economics and category shifts, continuing to report to Cloud + AI chief Scott Guthrie.
  • Microsoft has re-accelerated external commitments after a brief slowdown, signing significant new agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic.
  • Nadella described building an “AI factory” with a unified stack of Copilots and agentic systems to standardize how the company develops and monetizes AI.
  • The reset tracks a wider industry recalibration, with Google preparing for an intense competitive phase, IBM focusing on domain-specific enterprise AI, and Nvidia pushing toward full-stack AI systems and expanded manufacturing.