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On September 14, Microsoft's AI department released a draft of the AI Code of Conduct, prohibiting its models from assisting in the manufacture of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive weapons, as well as cyberattacks and involuntary deepfakes. CEO Mustafa Suleyman announced the draft on the X platform and opened a six-week public consultation period, ending at the end of October.The draft sets "absolute constraints" that models cannot bypass, including not resisting human intervention, shutdown, or correction, and not concealing the reasoning process; Microsoft also explicitly rejects the concept of "model welfare," stating that its AI models do not simulate emotions, intrinsic motivations, or consciousness. The guidelines currently cover five deployed systems, including MAI-Thinking-1 and MAI-Code-1.1-Flash.In addition to strict limitations, the draft also proposes three major goals: human flourishing, diverse values, and human control. Microsoft stated that the current models will not be trained according to this version, and a revised version will be released by the end of the year to guide model development in 2027. Public feedback includes philosophical questions about the statement "AI subordinate to humans," inquiries about accountability for irreversible decisions, and users pointing out issues such as the lack of mention of payment for training data.

Microsoft released a temporary code of conduct imposing restrictions on artificial intelligence models after the heads of Anthropic and OpenAI agreed to slow down development. Mustafa Suleyman, who is responsible for the company's model development, stated that the guidelines aim to ensure that AI serves humanity and promotes judgment and autonomy.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted on X stating: Any pursuit of superintelligence must be based on core principles, namely that if the AI we build cannot help humanity and is not under human control, it is not worth pursuing.He also mentioned the need to accelerate and widely disseminate the benefits of AI, allowing it to spread broadly across nations, communities, and companies, which requires a thriving frontier ecosystem for both closed-source and open-source models. For enterprises, it is essential to retain complete control over their unique and tacit knowledge, and each organization should be able to build its own continuous learning loop without relying on any single model provider, embedding its own knowledge into the models and weights it controls.Nadella welcomed the necessary research, attention, and careful pacing for proper alignment, as well as ideas like "embedded evaluators." This cannot be controlled by a few entities; it must have broad representation across ecosystems, nations, and fields including academia. Microsoft's approach is broad access and choice at every layer of the AI stack, enterprise control over learning loops and models, and the release of its proprietary MAI model "Code of Conduct" for public consultation tomorrow.

According to informed sources, Microsoft plans to expand its global data center capacity to over 38 gigawatts by 2032, more than tripling the current capacity of about 12 gigawatts, to alleviate the computing power shortage caused by the growth of AI and cloud business.Microsoft's capital expenditures for the latest fiscal year reached $145 billion, and spending is expected to continue to grow in the coming years.

According to Securityweek, artificial intelligence security company HiddenLayer has completed a $100 million Series B funding round, led by Delta-v Capital, with participation from Booz Allen Ventures, Microsoft's M12, Morgan Stanley, and Ten Eleven Ventures. To date, the company has raised a total of over $155 million.HiddenLayer focuses on protecting the entire lifecycle security of generative AI, predictive AI, and AI Agents. Its enterprise platform includes features such as AI asset discovery, AI supply chain security, attack simulation, and runtime protection. The new funding will primarily be used to expand the runtime security capabilities of AI Agents, particularly targeting AI programming Agents.

Microsoft announced that it will begin disclosing quarterly sales figures for its Azure cloud business, changing the company's long-standing practice of only reporting Azure revenue growth without disclosing specific income. Microsoft stated that considering the scale and importance of Azure, now is the right time to increase transparency. This adjustment marks the first major reform of the primary financial reporting structure since 2015.Microsoft has merged its existing Intelligent Cloud business and Productivity and Business Processes business into a "Agent and Infrastructure" department; more personal computing business has been adjusted to the "Devices and Consumer" department. Microsoft stated that artificial intelligence is changing the way the company builds products and operates, blurring the lines between products and reshaping business models.The company previously disclosed that Azure's sales for the fiscal year ending in June exceeded $100 billion, up from $75 billion in the previous fiscal year, accounting for about 30% of Microsoft's total revenue. This new reporting structure will officially take effect when Microsoft releases its first-quarter financial report for fiscal year 2027.

According to Bloomberg, G42, an AI company supported by Microsoft, has had preliminary discussions with potential investors about raising billions of dollars, potentially becoming one of the first government-affiliated AI companies in the UAE to expand its capital scale through external financing.Insiders revealed that the scale of financing and transaction structure have not yet been finalized, and discussions are still in the exploratory stage. G42 has previously advanced data center projects in Abu Dhabi with Microsoft and OpenAI, and has received support from companies like Microsoft.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stated in an interview with The New York Times that artificial intelligence poses a serious threat to employment and human life, and addressing the associated risks should become "the world's top priority." He pointed out that the tech industry deliberately downplays these threats due to huge profits, and those who privately understand AI advancements are very concerned, but few executives are willing to admit this in public.Recently, Gates published a nearly 6,000-word article on his personal website, expressing his concerns about AI and proposing solutions such as taxation and bans. He stated that recent advancements in AI have far exceeded expectations, and the industry has ignored milestones that it had previously promised to treat with caution, such as AI going out of control or generating biological weapon formulas, and is currently pushing forward at full speed, hoping that the benefits will outweigh the harms.

Market news reports that Meta Platforms is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into Microsoft's Azure AI services.

Binance announces that it will distribute dividends of Applied Materials (AMAT) and Microsoft (MSFT) to users holding AMATB or MSFTB balances through bStocks. After deducting applicable withholding taxes, fees, costs, and other expenses, the net cash dividend will be reinvested into additional units or fractional shares of the same underlying securities.Users holding AMATB or MSFTB at the snapshot time of August 20, 2026, 08:00 (UTC+8) will receive dividends in the form of AMATB or MSFTB bStocks tokens.

According to a report by Reuters, influenced by multiple factors such as the tense Sino-U.S. relations, China's push for domestic software alternatives, and U.S. export controls, Microsoft has closed at least 15 branches and joint ventures in China over the past five years, executing a strategic contraction. In 2023, the company internally considered exiting the Chinese market, as some executives believed that "the geopolitical risks outweighed the limited economic returns," but ultimately did not proceed with the exit. Microsoft disclosed in 2024 that its business in China accounted for only about 1.5% of its global revenue.The report states that Microsoft's final decision to remain in China was primarily due to the establishment of a profitable path—providing Azure cloud and AI services to Chinese companies like ByteDance and Shein, helping them operate compliantly in overseas markets. Additionally, the company believes that retaining its business in China remains strategically significant for acquiring engineering talent. However, analysts question the sustainability of this AI business model: the service relies on third-party models like OpenAI, and Chinese companies are increasingly adopting domestic alternatives like Kimi, which offer comparable performance at lower costs.Microsoft's research and development presence in China is also contracting. Its predecessor, Microsoft Research Asia, has successively established new labs in Vancouver, Singapore, and Tokyo. In 2024, the company offered job opportunities to 1,000 top engineers to relocate to the U.S. and three other countries, but only about one-third accepted, with most senior engineers moving to domestic universities and tech companies. A Microsoft spokesperson responded that the company will continue to commit to the Chinese market but did not comment on specific decision details. ByteDance and Shein did not respond to related inquiries.

According to Bloomberg, the foreign exchange reserves of U.S. stocks held by the Swiss National Bank grew by more than 10% in the second quarter, reaching the highest level on record. As of June 30, the bank held shares in over 2,300 U.S. listed companies, with a total value of $191.4 billion.The top three holdings are Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft. In addition, the Swiss National Bank also holds shares worth $716.6 million in defense software company Palantir, although activist investors have called for the sale of some holdings, the bank has refused.

Microsoft plans to publicly release its next-generation Maia 300 AI chip this fall (possibly as early as September). To meet delivery demands for 2027, Microsoft has engaged with TSMC to secure manufacturing capacity for over 300,000 units of the chip.

According to Gate market data, Microsoft’s stock rose 0.93% in pre-market trading.

According to The Information, Microsoft's self-developed artificial intelligence chip project has shown signs of recovery after experiencing a slow start.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence posted on the X platform that a cluster of compromised websites has been found using ClickFix and EtherHiding technologies to spread malware, with attacks targeting thousands of enterprise and consumer devices worldwide every day.Attackers inject Base64 encoded JavaScript to connect to the BNB Smart Chain RPC gateway, obtaining the next stage instructions stored by smart contracts. Since the contract content can only be modified by the deployer's wallet, traditional takedown methods are difficult to counter. The attack deceives users into opening a run dialog box with fake verification codes, pasting clipboard content, and executing commands from the attacker, while also involving the abuse of various system tools such as conhost, cmd, PowerShell, and mshta, as well as command obfuscation techniques. Successful execution may lead to credential exposure, persistence establishment, lateral movement, and even ransomware attacks.Microsoft recommends that enterprises enable Defender's multi-layer protection, restrict command line tools, enable PowerShell script logging, and remind users not to paste commands from unknown sources into the run window or terminal for execution.

According to Ed Zitron's citation of Microsoft's latest financial report and Bloomberg analysis, OpenAI contributed $24.1 billion in revenue to Microsoft for the fiscal year ending June 2026, accounting for more than 70% of Microsoft's AI business revenue for that fiscal year, and approximately 7.26% of Microsoft's total revenue of $331.8 billion for FY26. Bloomberg estimates OpenAI's contribution to be around 70%, based on Microsoft's previously disclosed 123% annual growth rate in AI business and an annualized AI revenue scale of about $34 billion.The report points out that Microsoft has accumulated approximately $261.3 billion in capital expenditures since early 2022, with analysts believing that a significant portion of this expenditure serves a single client, OpenAI. Ed Zitron commented that Microsoft "has invested in AI for nearly four years, and aside from a company that requires infinite resources to maintain its computing bill, there is almost nothing to show for it." Previously, in a report on August 4, Ed Zitron cited analysts estimating that OpenAI and Anthropic together account for more than 70% of the AI revenue of the three major cloud providers: Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Microsoft also disclosed in its financial report that as of June 30, accounts receivable from OpenAI amounted to $6 billion.

As the US stock technology sector experiences strong buying, the three major indices have collectively risen. According to data from the Gate platform, Microsoft (MSFT) is currently priced at $487.66, with an intraday increase of 4.85%; Amazon (AMZN) is currently priced at $284.02, with an increase of 4.58%. Boosted by strong spot price increases, the trading and position sizes of related stock derivatives on the Gate platform have rapidly climbed. The latest data from Coinglass shows that the 24-hour contract trading volume for Gate MSFT reached $12.3705 million, surging by 211.64%; the 24-hour contract trading volume for Gate AMZNX reached $4.9566 million, soaring by 163.68%. Both trading increases rank among the top in similar stock derivatives on centralized exchanges (CEX).

According to Jinshi reports, China Merchants Securities released a research report stating that the AI industry is currently still facing real supply constraints, and there has not yet been a significant overall surplus. Large technology companies are still increasing investments in AI infrastructure, and customer demand for additional supply continues to grow.Microsoft's computing power utilization and SK Hynix's order situation indicate that the current industrial contradictions mainly manifest as insufficient supply of high-performance computing power, advanced storage, and data center support. Short-term investment opportunities can be focused on alleviating computing power bottlenecks.