Switzerland’s competition authority has launched a preliminary probe into Microsoft’s software licensing fees following formal complaints from both private businesses and multiple public-sector bodies. The watchdog, ComCo, is examining price increases implemented in the past 12 months for enterprise and academic volume-licensing agreements. If ComCo finds that these hikes unduly restrict competition or exploit Microsoft’s dominant market position, the case could advance to a full investigation, potentially exposing the company to remedies ranging from fee rollbacks to structural separation orders.

Microsoft has deepened its AI offerings by integrating multiple external models into its Azure platform and productivity suite. The company is on track to spend approximately $500 million per year on Anthropic’s Claude models, while maintaining multi-billion-dollar commitments to OpenAI. Sales teams now earn equal credit for selling Anthropic and OpenAI solutions, reflecting Microsoft’s shift to a ‘best-model’ approach. This strategy has helped Azure AI revenues grow at an annualized rate exceeding 35% in the latest quarter, and management forecasts that AI-driven cloud bookings will represent over 50% of total infrastructure revenues by year-end.

In a landmark environmental deal, Microsoft has agreed to acquire 2.85 million soil carbon credits from Indigo Carbon, marking the largest single purchase recorded to date in the voluntary market. The credits are tied to regenerative agriculture projects across five U.S. states, and this transaction supports Microsoft’s pledge to become carbon negative by 2030. However, the deal comes as the company’s data center emissions have climbed by 18% year-over-year due to soaring energy demands from AI workloads, underscoring the challenge of balancing growth with sustainability.