On Thursday, Microsoft announced a new operating business called Microsoft Frontier Company, focused on delivering successful enterprise AI implementations with Microsoft’s existing AI tools. The project will be supported by a $2.5 billion investment from Microsoft, as well as 6,000 industry and engineering experts.
In a statement announcing the company, Microsoft’s chief commercial business executive, Judson Althoff, resisted the forward-deployed engineer (FDE) label often applied to these companies. “This goes beyond what has been called future-implemented engineering,” Althoff wrote, “and will be the largest, most capable, results-oriented engineering organization in the industry.”
However, the company bears a striking similarity to a number of FDE-based AI companies announced in recent months. Fair two days beforeAmazon Web Services announced a $1 billion internal commitment to its own AI deployment initiative, explicitly adopting the FDE model. Both OpenAI and Anthropic They have launched joint ventures along similar lines, although those efforts also involve outside capital from private equity firms.
Microsoft’s existing customer base will give the new effort a significant advantage, as the company has already deployed engineers across much of the Fortune 500. The announcement cites an early partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group, as well as Unilever, Land O’Lakes and Accenture.
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