#microsoft Tech News.

Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says the company was 'set free' from its partnership with OpenAI to pursue superintelligence, ending a three-year relationship that catapulted Copilot products into the enterprise mainstream and added hundreds of billions of dollars to its market capitalization.

Microsoft is doubling down on its quantum computing plans, releasing a new quantum chip called Majorana 2. The company is now targeting 2029 for a useful quantum computer, a year earlier than previously planned. This is due to improved qubits that stay together for an average of 20 seconds, 1,000 times longer than the first-generation chip. Microsoft's topological qubit approach offers hardware-based protection against qubit fragility.

Reid Hoffman stepped down from Microsoft's board to focus on his AI drug discovery startup Manus. Hoffman joined the board after Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. Manus raised over $50 million in seed rounds and is led by CEO Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. Hoffman cited a need to go "founder mode" as the startup works on AI to combat cancers.

Microsoft plans to make its Scout AI assistant addictive before adding more features, according to an internal strategy document. The goal is to transition users from an addictive app to an agentic platform in three phases. This approach is consistent with Microsoft's history of building dependency on its products, including the Windows operating system. Microsoft's strategy document mentions making users addicted to Scout before rolling out additional functionality. Microsoft has a history of creating dependency on its products, including Windows.

Microsoft launched Xbox Mode for Windows 11, offering a console-style interface designed for standard controllers. It aggregates game libraries and prioritizes controller usability, aiming to simplify PC gaming. Valve's Big Picture Mode has long been the benchmark for couch-friendly PC gaming interfaces. The feature competes directly with Steam's established interface, targeting users seeking console-like experiences on PCs.

Microsoft unveiled seven new in-house AI models at its Build conference. Its flagship MAI-Thinking-1 model was built from scratch without distillation. Using McKinsey benchmarks, it outperformed OpenAI's GPT 5-5 with 10 times better cost efficiency. The company introduced models for coding, image, voice, and transcription. Microsoft can reduce costs by cutting payments to third-party AI firms like OpenAI.

Microsoft announced Microsoft IQ as a context layer across GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Foundry, and Copilot Studio. The company also revealed Work IQ APIs, Fabric IQ, Foundry IQ, and Web IQ as part of its AI strategy. These tools aim to provide reliable context, governance, identity, memory, and secure access to enterprise data. Microsoft is pushing agents into production throughout enterprise systems.