Breaking2 min read
Microsoft Launches Three New MAI Foundational Models — Taking Direct Aim at OpenAI and Google in the Enterprise AI Race
Microsoft has released a trio of new foundational AI models under its MAI (Microsoft AI) brand: MAI-Transcribe-1 for speech-to-text, MAI-Encoder-1 for embeddings, and a new image generation model. Running 2.5x faster than predecessors and available via Azure AI Foundry, these models signal Microsoft's intent to compete at the infrastructure layer, not just through OpenAI's API.