Microsoft AI CEO said competing at the frontier of AI will cost “hundreds of billions of dollars” over the next five to 10 years.
He compared Microsoft to a “modern construction company."
He said his goal is to make Microsoft “self-sufficient” when it comes to building frontier AI models.
Microsoft’s head of artificial intelligence Mustafa Suleyman has warned companies aiming to lead in advanced AI must be ready to invest money that only the largest tech firms can afford. Speaking on an episode of the “Moonshots with Peter Diamandis” podcast, Suleyman said competing at the frontier of AI will cost “hundreds of billions of dollars” over the next five to 10 years, reports Business Insider. He added that the bill does not stop at hardware and data centers. “Not to mention the prices that we’re paying for individual researchers or members of technical staff,” he said.
SurveySuleyman compared Microsoft to a “modern construction company,” with huge teams effectively building vast amounts of computing power, including gigawatts of CPUs and AI accelerators. Because of this scale, he said, being part of a large corporation brings clear benefits.
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Microsoft is one of the world’s most valuable companies, with a market capitalisation of $3.54 trillion, according to the report. For the quarter ending in September, the company brought in $77.7 billion in revenue.
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Suleyman said his goal is to make Microsoft “self-sufficient” when it comes to building frontier AI models and to create “an absolutely world-class superintelligence team.” He made it clear that the company has no plans to slow down. “We’re absolutely pushing for the frontier,” Suleyman said. “We want to build the best superintelligence and the safest superintelligence models in the world.”
He is also concerned about whether smaller companies can keep up. With costs rising so fast, “it’s hard to say” if startups can truly compete with the big tech giants.
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Ayushi Jain
Ayushi works as Chief Copy Editor at Digit, covering everything from breaking tech news to in-depth smartphone reviews. Prior to Digit, she was part of the editorial team at IANS. View Full Profile
