The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK has started gathering comments from third parties about the partnerships between Microsoft and Mistral AI, Amazon and Anthropic, and Microsoft’s hiring of Inflection AI staff. This is the first phase of gathering information to see whether these deals “fall within UK merger rules and the impact that these arrangements could have on competition in the UK.”
Coca-Cola has made a $1.1 billion commitment to the Microsoft Cloud and the company’s generative AI capabilities. Coca-Cola will use the Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365 in a five-year strategic partnership. The deal comes a day after Cognizant also partnered with Microsoft for generative AI, and just days before Microsoft’s earnings report where AI growth is a big focus for investors.
Intel has been investigating games crashing on its Core i9 13th and 14th Gen processors. Now, Asus has started issuing BIOS updates for its latest Z790 motherboards that include a new “Intel Baseline Profile” option that should improve stability in certain games. We’re still waiting on Intel to comment, but it looks like some motherboards have been pushing Intel’s chips to their limits.
Microsoft has been testing an Xbox Mastercard for more than six months and it’s now opening it up to everyone in the US today. The Xbox Mastercard is a no annual fee credit card issued by Barclays, and purchases made using the card will generate points that can be redeemed on Xbox games and add-ons.
The many Michaels and Mikes at Microsoft woke up to a larger than normal amount of emails this week. “Someone accidentally(?) added every Mike/Michael at Microsoft to a discussion alias,” reveals Bing VP Michael Schechter. Copilot summarized the email thread and it says some of the Michaels are concerned “they might be hunted for sport” 😅.
