Elon Musk’s Macrohard to challenge Microsoft

In yet another experiment that could disrupt the tech industry, Elon Musk has floated a new concept named Macrohard, which could challenge the dominance of Microsoft.

Posting on X, he said the name Macrohard sounds “tongue-in-cheek” but the project is “very real”.

It will serve as a solely artificial intelligence (AI) software company, operating in conjunction with Musk’s current AI venture, xAI. Given that conventional software behemoths such as Microsoft do not produce physical components on their own, it should be feasible to replicate them entirely using AI, according to him.

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“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 them entirely with AI,” Musk said in his tweet on Friday, August 22.

Macrohard patent filed

According to reports, it was on August 1 that Musk’s xAI had filed for the Macrohard patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office. It was only recently that he hinted at a multi-agent AI software company utilising xAI’s Grok chatbot. It seems he has gone forward to give shape to the concept, besides a name.

This is not Musk’s first entry into conquering the world of software. In 2024, he suggested the idea of creating video games backed by AI. Now, he is all geared up to expand his aspirations into the realm of productivity software that Microsoft has dominated for a long time.

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In July, Musk said in a post on X, “We are creating a multi-agent AI software company @xAI, where @Grok spawns hundreds of specialized coding and image/video generation/understanding agents all working together and then emulates humans interacting with the software in virtual machines until the result is excellent.

This is a macro challenge and a hard problem with stiff competition! Can you guess the name of this company?”

Musk’s relationship with Microsoft and its Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella, has blown hot and cold for a while. On August 7, Musk said, “OpenAI is going to eat Microsoft alive” after Nadella announced the launch of GPT-5 across several platforms of Microsoft, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Azure AI Foundry.

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Nadella responded the next day, saying people had been trying for 50 years, and that’s the fun of it.

“Each day you learn something new, and innovate, partner, and compete. Excited for Grok 4 on Azure and looking forward to Grok 5!” he wrote on X.