On Thursday, Microsoft revealed a new operational entity named Microsoft Frontier Company, dedicated to providing effective enterprise AI implementations using Microsoft’s established AI resources. The initiative will be supported by a $2.5 billion investment from Microsoft, along with a team of 6,000 professionals in industry and engineering.

In a declaration about the initiative, Microsoft’s Commercial Business CEO Judson Althoff dismissed the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) moniker commonly associated with such initiatives. “This transcends what has been defined as Forward-Deployed Engineering,” Althoff expressed, “and will create the largest, most proficient, outcome-focused engineering organization in the sector.”

Nevertheless, the initiative bears a notable resemblance to several recent FDE-oriented AI projects introduced in the past few months. Merely two days prior, Amazon Web Services revealed a $1 billion internal pledge for its AI deployment initiative, explicitly adopting the FDE framework. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have initiated partnerships along similar tracks, although those projects also draw outside investments from private equity firms.

Microsoft’s current client base will provide the new initiative with a substantial advantage, as the corporation has already assigned engineers to a significant portion of the Fortune 500. The announcement mentions an initial collaboration with the London Stock Exchange Group, along with Unilever, Land O’Lakes, and Accenture.