- OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra, its most advanced AI model, with early enterprise customers already using it on Microsoft Azure.
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sold over $43 million in company stock under a pre-arranged trading plan.
- Microsoft disclosed Azure quarterly revenue for the first time, with annual sales surpassing $100 billion.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Thursday that early customers have begun using OpenAI‘s newly launched GPT-6 Astra AI model on Azure, highlighting the cloud platform’s role in delivering OpenAI’s latest capabilities to enterprises. “Excited to see early customers already using Astra on Azure,” Nadella said in an X post shortly after Microsoft announced the model had started rolling out through the Microsoft Foundry Limited Access Program.
OpenAI described Astra as its most capable model for complex, end-to-end work, capable of reasoning through multi-step problems, using tools, and executing tasks across software applications. However, the initial rollout remains limited, with access expanding through OpenAI’s API and paid ChatGPT plans in coming days.
Meanwhile, Nadella sold over $43 million worth of Microsoft shares under a pre-approved 10b5-1 plan on Sept. 1, at prices between $497.69 and $505.76. The sale marks his first of the year, though executives routinely sell stock under such plans.
Consequently, Microsoft shares have underperformed the broader market, up 6.5% year to date versus a 13% gain in the S&P 500. The stock is down 0.7% for the week and slipped 0.2% in overnight trading.
Earlier this week, Microsoft revealed Azure unit financials for the first time, reporting that annual sales topped $100 billion in the most recent fiscal year, up from $75 billion. Azure generated $29.4 billion in the quarter ended June 30.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for MSFT was bearish as of early Friday. “Microsoft’s AI strategy isn’t ‘pick a winner.’ It’s three roads that all lead to the same place,” said one trader, pointing to investments in OpenAI and Anthropic, Azure compute rentals, and in-house MAI models as interconnected growth paths.
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