M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund

What do grocery stores and current AI infrastructure have in common? In a conversation with Dina Bass at Bloomberg, M12 Managing Partner Michael Stewart highlights a growing issue for data center operators: older GPUs are still occupying the most valuable rack space, even as their effective lifespan shortens. Just as grocery stores reserve prime shelves for high-value items, operators may need to rethink compute allocation as the AI boom tests long-held assumptions about chip depreciation. More from Bloomberg: https://lnkd.in/eYGJfAn9

Congrats to portfolio company micro1 on the launch of micro1 Intelligence. 👏 High-quality, expert-level training data is one of the biggest bottlenecks to AI advancement. By providing rich RL environments that capture real-world workflows and human decision-making across subjects, micro1 Intelligence is paving the way for more capable models on the road to AGI. https://lnkd.in/eW8xatdV

Another packed and productive week at #MSIgnite!    As the pace of innovation accelerates across AI, cloud, and security, I’m continually inspired by the founders and teams building what comes next. This week, M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund portfolio was out in force, driving conversations, shaping roadmaps, and demonstrating what responsible, enterprise-grade AI looks like in practice.    A few standout moments from our companies on the ground:    Zenity – Included as part of the “AI Operations to own the fleet, master the mission in Microsoft Foundry,” session which reinforced the critical role of observability and unified control to govern and optimize agentic AI. Learn more in this blog post: https://lnkd.in/gaEDT_tQ.    NeuBird.ai – In addition to their session “Agentic AI SRE on Azure for faster RCA and resolution”, I was happy to lead a fireside chat with their customers Venkat Ramakrishnan and Christopher Jones and learn more about how Neubird has been driving their businesses forward.      RegScale – CISO Dale H. delivered a compelling session on turning compliance into competitive advantage. Their approach to continuous, automated compliance is resonating deeply as organizations rethink governance in the era of AI.    Inception – Announced the launch of their model in the Microsoft Foundry model catalog. The addition of Inception's managed compute model advances Foundry's mission of bringing the world's best intelligence into one trusted platform.    Arize AI – Announced their partnership with Microsoft Foundry to empower companies to operationalize trustworthy AI with deeper evaluation, monitoring, and performance insights.    Wandelbots – Shared the mainstage with Microsoft and NVIDIA to discuss advancements in physical AI using simulation and digital twins in robotics development, followed by a deep dive into how Wandelbots NOVA Cloud integrates with NVIDIA Isaac Sim on Azure. Their theatre session with Microsoft on “The new industrial frontier” underscored the transformation happening across industrial automation.    micro1, Reach Security and Typeface were also out in full force, hosting dinners and meetings with executives and analysts.    In other event highlights, our Microsoft Business Development team hosted a great happy hour on Tuesday to forge new connections, and Microsoft for Startups, Microsoft Worldwide Private Capital team, and NVIDIA hosted a mixer convening a great group of VCs, startup founders, and industry experts to exchange ideas.     Ignite always serves as a powerful reminder of what’s possible when founders, customers, and partners come together with a shared purpose. I’m incredibly proud of the work these teams are doing and energized by the momentum we’re carrying into the new year.  

We’re inspired by the incredible momentum our portfolio companies brought to Microsoft Ignite this week. Thank you to our CVP and Global Head Michelle Gonzalez for spotlighting the founders who are shaping the future of AI, security, and cloud innovation. Proud to partner with teams pushing boundaries and delivering real impact across the Microsoft ecosystem. See the highlights here: https://lnkd.in/eRHNC7HQ

Collaboration is core to #MSIgnite, and this year’s focus on system integration makes it clearer than ever. Arize AI and Microsoft Foundry are putting that into practice with a unified lifecycle for AI agents that brings observability, evaluation, and experimentation into one governed platform. It’s the next step toward continuous, responsible AI at enterprise scale. 👇 https://lnkd.in/eHWjMTFF

#MSIgnite week is officially underway, and we couldn’t imagine a better start. 💥 Last night, we were happy to co-host the VIP Networking Happy Hour with Microsoft for Startups, bringing together founders, enterprise customers, Microsoft leaders, creators, and partners for an evening focused on true connection and innovation. The event also included a preview with content creators, giving them early access to a few breakout M12 startups, including Arize AI, RegScale and NeuBird.ai. The energy in the room said it all: meaningful intros, smart questions, and founders showing what’s possible with AI and enterprise innovation accelerating this fast. Huge thank you to everyone who joined us including Typeface, Inception, Reach Security, and to the incredible founders across the M12 portfolio who continue to push the edge of what’s next. More ahead as we gear up for a high-impact week at Ignite! #MSIgnite

This week, we’re kicking off Microsoft Ignite 2025: where the industry’s builders, operators, and enterprise leaders come together to pressure-test what’s next in AI and cloud. Great to see NeuBird.ai, an M12 portfolio company, highlighted by Microsoft as one of the standout startups heading into the event. Neubird reflects a broader trend we’re seeing across the ecosystem: founders tackling complex, high-stakes enterprise workflows with AI that delivers measurable outcomes. Their generative-AI platform for SRE has helped customers reduce MTTR by up to 90% while giving engineering teams back time to focus on higher-value work. This is the type of impact that moves enterprise adoption forward and shows what it looks like when AI solves real operational pain. Looking forward to a week of signal, substance, and real-world impact at #MSIgnite! https://lnkd.in/em7JgEXK

We're excited to back organizations that flip the script on what it means to use AI to power growth. Congrats to M12 portfolio company Growthspace and co-founder Omer Glass, who just unveiled the launch of ExpertX 🚀 ExpertX is redefining how organizations access and scale real human expertise through AI. How? They've introduced the first AI-built and human-powered expert learning experience. Every ExpertX is designed, modeled after, and trained by both Growthspace Experts and an organization's own leaders and top performers to enable precision skill development at scale. We're looking forward to seeing how Growthspace continues to redefine skill development in the AI era. https://lnkd.in/eeGqHZBH

Celebrating our portfolio company d-Matrix today as they announce a $275M Series C and $2B valuation — major milestones in shaping the future of AI inference and tackling the sustainability challenges of large-scale compute. As AI models continue to scale, inference has become the greatest cost and energy barrier. d-Matrix’s architecture delivers high performance with dramatically lower power consumption, enabling enterprises and sovereign AI systems to deploy at scale with greater efficiency and sustainability. Congrats to the d-Matrix team! 👏 https://lnkd.in/e-HwQCan

Is AI the final invention? M12 Managing Partner Michael Stewart recently joined the MARS Magazine Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on how artificial intelligence is reshaping everything from tech and investing, to the future workforce and beyond. Highlights from the discussion: 1️⃣ Investing in the infrastructure of trust: In cybersecurity investing, technology itself is rarely the centerpiece. The more important piece is how that technology is distributed and integrated into trusted systems. 2️⃣ AI may deliver truths we can’t yet verify: AGI may output truths beyond human comprehension... ideas so advanced that they initially appear as “hallucinations.” Humanity will need new technologies just to test them. 3️⃣ The next AI race: Photonics could solve power consumption, AI’s biggest constraint. As traditional chip scaling (Moore’s Law) hits physical limits, optical systems offer the next leap in networking and computation efficiency. 4️⃣ Raising the next generation for the AI era: Michael's advice to the next generation (including his own kids) is to focus on evergreen human skills like rational thinking, empathy, clear communication, and problem-solving. These are the abilities AI will amplify, not replace. 🎧 Listen to the full episode: https://lnkd.in/eZfT2bKi