Elon Musk Announces AI-Run Microsoft Rival, Calls It ‘Macrohard’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced the launch of a new company named Macrohard, aimed at directly challenging Microsoft’s software empire by harnessing artificial intelligence. Confirming the venture on X, Musk clarified that while the name is tongue-in-cheek, the project itself is entirely real, signaling yet another ambitious push by the billionaire into AI-driven disruption.

Join @xAI and help build a purely AI software company called Macrohard. It’s a tongue-in-cheek name, but the project is very real!

In principle, given that software companies like Microsoft do not themselves manufacture any physical hardware, it should be possible to simulate…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2025

Elon Musk explained that since companies like Microsoft don’t produce hardware themselves, it should be theoretically possible to recreate their entire software ecosystem purely through AI. He envisions building this simulation using a network of specialized AI agents capable of coding, generating, and interpreting text, images, and video, ultimately interacting within virtual machines to deliver human-level outputs.

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Last month, Musk teased the idea on X, noting that the project would rely on hundreds of such agents collaborating to produce software indistinguishable from human-created work. He described it as a “macro challenge” and a highly difficult problem, even jokingly inviting users to guess the name of the company before revealing it as Macrohard.

Musk’s relationship with Microsoft and its CEO Satya Nadella has been marked by both rivalry and cooperation. He has criticized the company for its ties with OpenAI, dragging it into his lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit mission for profit. Yet, the two leaders also held a public discussion in May when Musk’s Grok 3 models were added to Microsoft’s Azure AI platform, showing how their interests intersect despite the friction.

Elon says he’s serious about starting a company called MACROHARD

” @xAI and help build a purely AI software company called Macrohard. It’s a tongue-in-cheek name, but the project is very real!

In principle, given that software companies like Microsoft do not themselves… pic.twitter.com/pdUN4eKHaV
— GrokyDesigner (@Groky_de) August 22, 2025

At the same time, Musk has used these moments to position his own AI models as superior. While hyping the upcoming Grok 5 model for release later this year, he continues to insist that Grok 4 already outperforms competitors. Meanwhile, Microsoft has leaned heavily on OpenAI’s models to fuel its AI-powered Copilot tools across products like GitHub, Windows, and web services, making the competition between Musk’s AI vision and Microsoft’s OpenAI partnership even more pronounced.

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