Microsoft opened its Build 2026 developer conference with a keynote from CEO Satya Nadella and other company leaders, unveiling a wide range of announcements across hardware, AI, and quantum computing.
On the hardware side, Microsoft announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a device aimed at developers who want to run local AI models. It features Nvidia’s Arm-based Spark RTX chip, 128GB of unified memory, and comes with Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot pre-installed. It runs a preconfigured version of Windows 11 Pro with dark mode enabled by default and a simplified taskbar. Pricing and full specs have not been disclosed; availability in the US is expected later in 2026.
Microsoft also announced several developer-focused Windows improvements, including Coreutils — Linux-like command-line utilities that run natively on Windows 11 — along with Linux container support through Windows Subsystem for Linux and a new Intelligent Terminal designed to work with AI-powered agents.
A new always-on AI assistant called Scout was introduced, built on OpenClaw, an open-source AI platform. Scout integrates with Microsoft 365 apps including Outlook, OneDrive, and Teams, and is designed to handle background tasks such as calendar organization, expense reporting, and email drafting. It is launching in desktop preview for Frontier customers in the US in 2026, with broader availability planned. Scout is part of a larger set of “Autopilot” agents Microsoft intends to release.
Microsoft revealed seven new in-house AI models, including MAI-Thinking-1, described as its first reasoning model. It offers 35 billion active parameters and a 128K context window, targeting complex multi-step instructions and code generation. Additional model updates cover image, voice, transcription, and code generation.
To address AI safety, Microsoft announced Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), which allow developers to set guardrails on what AI agents can access. An OpenClaw companion app was also announced, enabling users to set up or connect to agents in a sandboxed environment.
Microsoft also unveiled Majorana 2, its next-generation quantum computing chip. The company says the chip’s qubits are 1,000 times more accurate than its predecessor, a gain attributed to a new material stack using lead and other compounds. Microsoft stated the progress could bring it closer to its goal of building a practical quantum computer by 2029.
Source: The Verge