This is what happens when an open-ended research project is mis-perceived as commercial R&D

Nadella paid $650 million to acquihire Mustafa Suleyman and 70 Inflection employees in March 2024. The job: make Copilot the AI product that justifies Microsoft’s infrastructure bet. Two years later, Suleyman no longer runs Copilot.

The corporate framing is generous. “Freed up… https://t.co/nGo4DTa2Tl pic.twitter.com/W3I5PxgfFp

— Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta) March 19, 2026