Microsoft and Mistral expanded their partnership to target regulated enterprises seeking frontier AI with more control, amid rising demand for open-model options.

Microsoft is reportedly funding Mistral’s European AI expansion in a multibillion-dollar deal, strengthening Azure’s role in regional AI infrastructure.

AI search startup Perplexity expands beyond AWS with three-year $750M Microsoft Azure deal, gaining access to Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI models.