Microsoft has moved surprisingly quickly to bring R1 to its Azure customers.

Microsoft has added DeepSeek 's R1 model into its Azure AI Foundry platform and GitHub. The move is likely to improve Microsoft's customer experience. This affordable AI model from the Chinese start-up has shaken US financial markets with its performance and low training costs against top models from OpenAI, Meta, and Google.

It’s impossible to look at the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek’s new AI model without comparing it against OpenAI, the dominant American rival.DeepSeek has touted its latest AI model,

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes that DeepSeek will inevitably help the American AI industry rather than hurt it. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella isn’t pressed about Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s recent success.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's model led to increased scrutiny on Microsoft's AI spending.

Days after Chinese upstart DeepSeek revealed a breakthrough in cheap AI computing that shook the U.S. technology industry, the chief executives of Microsoft and Meta defended massive spending that they said was key to staying competitive in the new field.