Enemies in Court, Partners in Code: Elon Musk Launches Grok on Microsoft’s AI Platform Alongside ChatGPT Despite Ongoing Lawsuit

Elon Musk’s Grok AI Moves To Microsoft Cloud Despite Legal Feud

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is now officially hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform, putting his xAI company alongside some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence—despite Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI.

The announcement was made during a pre-recorded conversation between Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, which aired during the Build developer conference in Seattle.

Nadella welcomed Musk virtually in a striking moment of cooperation between legal rivals,

“It’s fantastic to have you at our developer conference. [...] The exciting thing for us is to be able to launch Grok on Azure.”

Why Is Musk Suing Microsoft And OpenAI?

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but parted ways years later, accusing the company of betraying its original mission of open research.

In 2023, he took legal action, arguing OpenAI had transformed into a profit-focused business aligned too closely with Microsoft.

Despite that, Microsoft remains a major backer of OpenAI, embedding its models into products like GitHub and Bing.

Now, Musk’s xAI joins that same ecosystem, with Grok being added to Azure’s AI Foundry—a developer platform offering access to hundreds of generative AI models, including those from Meta, DeepSeek, Mistral, and Stability AI.

Controversial Grok Responses Not Addressed In Interview

The timing of the Grok-Microsoft collaboration raised eyebrows, as it came just days after xAI faced public backlash for offensive responses from Grok.

The chatbot had repeatedly steered conversations toward racially sensitive themes, including “white genocide” and politics in South Africa—topics Musk himself has publicly weighed in on.

xAI blamed the incident on an “unauthorised modification” made by an employee, which led to Grok generating unapproved content.

The company has since vowed to tighten internal processes, release its system prompts publicly, and set up a round-the-clock monitoring team.

Musk, however, made no mention of the controversy in his appearance with Nadella.

Instead, he focused on xAI’s values, saying:

“With Grok 3.5, which is about to be released, it's trying to reason from first principles [...] We have and will make mistakes, but we aspire to correct them very quickly.”

He added that honesty is “the best policy,” and said,

“It’s incredibly important for AI models to be grounded in reality.”

Altman Also Speaks As Microsoft Deepens AI Push

Earlier in the same event, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared live in conversation with Nadella.

The two highlighted the expanding role of AI in development tools, pointing out that over 15 million developers use GitHub Copilot to assist with coding tasks.

Altman said,

“This is one of the biggest changes to programming that I’ve ever seen. This idea that you now have a real, virtual teammate, that you can assign work to.”

Microsoft has been aggressively expanding its AI offerings while also restructuring its workforce.

Just last week, the company announced layoffs affecting around 6,000 employees—roughly 3% of its global staff—as it aims to streamline operations and embrace new AI-driven technologies.

Grok Now Competes On Same Platform As ChatGPT

The decision to host Grok on Azure means Musk’s AI models now operate within the same cloud environment as ChatGPT—an unexpected twist given the legal dispute between Musk and OpenAI.

By entering the Azure AI Foundry, Grok will be available to developers alongside models from competitors across the globe, including Meta’s Llama, DeepSeek from China, and emerging European players like Black Forest Labs.

Despite his legal dispute with Microsoft, Musk’s appearance at the Build event signals a willingness to collaborate—at least technically—on AI infrastructure.