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Microsoft (MSFT) Plans to Establish New AI Hub in London

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Microsoft’s (MSFT - Free Report) artificial intelligence (AI) division is planning to open a pioneering AI hub in London. The company’s division, Microsoft AI, is focused on advancing its consumer AI products, research and capabilities like Copilot.

The Microsoft AI London hub will drive cutting-edge work to develop state-of-the-art language models, supporting infrastructure and world-class tooling for foundation models. It will collaborate closely with MSFT's AI teams and partners, including OpenAI.

Jordan Hoffmann, an exceptional AI scientist and engineer, who previously worked with Inflection and DeepMind in London, is set to lead this new AI hub. Hoffmann will be joined by a talented group of Microsoft AI team members based in the company's London Paddington office.

With an enormous AI talent pool in the U.K., Microsoft AI plans significant, long-term investment and hiring of top scientists and engineers for the London hub. Job openings will be posted in the coming weeks and months for exceptional individuals passionate about tackling the most interesting and challenging AI problems.

The Microsoft AI London hub adds to the company's existing U.K. presence, including Microsoft Research Cambridge. It also builds on MSFT's recently announced £2.5 billion investment to upskill the U.K. workforce for the AI era and build infrastructure to power the AI economy, such as bringing 20,000 advanced GPUs to the country by 2026.

More updates are expected as Microsoft continues pushing the boundaries of AI's possibilities and extending its benefits across the U.K.

MSFT Drives Copilot AI Across Products Amid Regulatory Probe

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is making bold moves to infuse its Copilot AI assistant across its product lineup, aiming to empower organizations in today's evolving workplace. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Microsoft Copilot, introduced a year ago as part of Microsoft 365, has proven instrumental in enhancing employee productivity and creativity by leveraging the power of AI, with data from the Work Trend Index research showcasing potential time savings of up to 10 hours per month.

At the core of MSFT's innovation push is the deep integration of Copilot into Windows 11 and Windows 365. In Windows 11, Copilot acts as an orchestrator securely executing tasks across applications, files and the web to enhance user efficiency and personalization. For the commercial segment, Copilot's capabilities extend to Windows 365 Cloud PCs, enabling seamless and secure work across various devices.

Furthermore, the tech giant is rolling out Copilot's AI capabilities to Microsoft 365, Teams and the Edge browser, extending its reach across the company's entire product spectrum.

Complementing these software advancements, Microsoft introduced two new Surface devices for businesses — the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6.

The cloud AI market presents immense growth opportunities, which is estimated to reach $274.54 billion by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 32.37%, according to Mordor Intelligence. This positions Microsoft, alongside rivals Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) and other tech giants actively investing in AI innovation.

While Microsoft pushes AI boundaries, competitors are also making strategic moves. Alphabet's Google Cloud unveiled healthcare and life sciences AI solutions, while Amazon Web Services partnered with Nvidia (NVDA - Free Report) to power its AI portfolio using NVDA's new Blackwell GPU platform designed for large language models.

As MSFT drives Copilot's proliferation, regulatory headwinds could potentially impact the company's ability to fully capitalize on the burgeoning AI market's lucrative prospects.

Despite these cutting-edge AI moves, shares of Microsoft have gained 12.9% year to date compared with the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s 11.4% growth amid an ongoing regulatory probe into the company's AI practices.

The Competition Commission of South Africa is preparing to accuse the tech giant of imposing exorbitant fees for businesses seeking to migrate their cloud licenses to alternative vendors. This move, anticipated in the imminent future, may spark a legal showdown potentially culminating in fines of up to 10% of Microsoft's revenues in the African nation.

Currently, officials are investigating whether AI models and digital platforms, including Microsoft's Bing, are impeding the revenue generation of the nation's news and media companies.

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