Microsoft puts $2.5B into Frontier Company, embedding 6,000 engineers with customers

Microsoft has introduced Microsoft Frontier Company, a new operating business that will embed 6,000 industry and engineering experts at customers to co-design, deploy and continuously improve AI systems tied to measurable business outcomes. Microsoft is investing $2.5 billion in it. In the announcement, Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, wrote that it "goes beyond what has been labeled as Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)."

The unit is not a separate legal entity, and GeekWire reported that most of its staff come from Microsoft's existing engineering and forward-deployed teams. A spokesperson said it will grow through both internal moves and outside hiring across engineering, AI and industry roles. It is led by Rodrigo Kede Lima, previously president of Microsoft Asia, and Microsoft says it will also work with FDE partners including Accenture, Capgemini, EY, KPMG and PwC.

The launch came two days after AWS announced its $1 billion FDE organization. For FDEs, it confirms that the major cloud providers now see embedded engineering as a core way to sell AI, and it points to more FDE-style openings at Microsoft and its consulting partners.