Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella leaves after attending a gathering with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 30, 2024.
Willy Kurniawan | Reuters
Microsoft has deserted a decades-long custom of calling out the names of its rivals in regulatory paperwork.
When the 50-year-old technology firm launched its annual report Wednesday, the 101-page document contained zero references to longtime foes Apple and IBM. Nor did it point out privately held challengers resembling Anthropic or Databricks.
Final 12 months’s Microsoft annual report formally designated over 25 companies as rivals. The names of Microsoft’s enemies have appeared in its annual experiences a minimum of since 1994.
The omission means Microsoft is breaking from a typical trade follow. Apple, Meta and Nvidia all namedrop the businesses they go up in opposition to.
It isn’t universally adopted, although. Amazon has not recognized rivals in annual experiences since 1999. Tesla final did it in 2020, and Alphabet halted after 2022.
Now, Microsoft simply says it faces competitors in all kinds of markets, together with productiveness software program, PC working methods and cloud infrastructure.
The extra particular disclosures helped to indicate the place firms stood with the most important title in software program. In 2024, Microsoft began referring to key companion OpenAI as a competitor, after the artificial intelligence startup launched an internet search function.
A Microsoft spokesperson advised CNBC that the corporate up to date the competitors portion of the annual report to handle bigger classes. The brand new format displays the fast-moving nature of the markets wherein the corporate operates, the spokesperson mentioned.
That is to not say Microsoft executives have stopped monitoring developments at different expertise firms.
CEO Satya Nadella referred to Amazon on Microsoft’s earnings name on Wednesday.
Scott Guthrie, govt vp of Microsoft’s cloud and AI group, mentioned at a convention in Could that “there are some cloud suppliers, like AWS, that also have not launched a GB200 providing.”
Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 methods embody 72 interconnected graphics processing models.
Microsoft shares climbed Thursday, a day after the corporate issued quarterly outcomes and steering that got here in higher than anticipated. The inventory transfer despatched the corporate’s market capitalization previous the $4 trillion mark.
