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Comment by autoexec | Hacker News Reader

> Microsoft continues to face AI capacity constraints, meaning customer demand for AI is outpacing Microsoft’s ability to supply it, putting an artificial cap on the Windows maker’s revenue.

Strangely, all I hear about is how annoyed people are with MS shoving AI into everything. Who are these "customers"?

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I think this is part of their circular financing "magic". The "customers" are likely OpenAI and Anthropic, who Microsoft is paying to use their infrastructure (so the "customer" who is paying for the AI capacity is Microsoft).

The customers here are the executives that then require everyone in their companies to "use AI". It's an old and trusted business model of selling software not to the users, but to their managers.

Llm mlm

AI adoption and investment is incestuous. Many major customers and investors of Microsoft are themselves heavy proponents of AI, so they need increased AI adoption to justify and sustain the extent to which they've already bought in.

Reuters reports (https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/microsoft-e...) "CEO Nadella revealed for the first time that Microsoft now has 15 million annual users for M365 Copilot, the $30 per month AI assistant that is Microsoft's main offering for business users." so in theory that's $5.4 billion in revenue.

Other companies deploying LLMs to automate their tasks? Other start ups / companies building AI products?

Enterprises that are excited to replace people with agents.

Haha "customers". Nobody cares about customers anymore. Investors are all that matter. They're the ones who want to see AI. Once you've pleased the investors, profitability is just accounting tricks.

As the adage says, if something is free, you're not the customer, you're the product.

The new adage is: even if you’re a paying customer you’re not the customer. You’re the product

the customers are all those annoyed people i'm afraid. spreadsheets just record it as another number whether you like it/wanted it or not

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