Overview
- Microsoft publicly revealed Project Solara at Build 2026 on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, presenting two reference designs and a roadmap for partner-led pilots.
- Solara is built on the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), an enterprise version of Android chosen to support smaller, lower-power form factors while keeping IT management and security features like Defender, Intune, and Entra ID.
- The company showed a desktop hub and a wearable badge as reference designs but said it will not sell the hardware itself and expects device makers to turn the designs into commercial products.
- Qualcomm and MediaTek are the first chip partners and Azure will serve as the cloud backend, while Microsoft also introduced Scout, a persistent assistant built on OpenClaw that will be offered through the Frontier program with a GitHub Copilot subscription requirement.
- Microsoft called the project early stage and highlighted enterprise use cases such as healthcare where purpose-built, managed devices can improve security, privacy, battery life, and ergonomics as firms including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi’s, and Target plan near-term pilots.