Microsoft counts Adobe, TikTok, and Perplexity as major AI customers

Microsoft’s cloud AI business has quietly assembled a client roster that reads like a who’s who of the tech industry. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, Adobe, and AI search startup Perplexity have all become significant customers of Azure OpenAI, the service that lets companies plug into OpenAI’s models through Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. The business is on track to hit a $10 billion annual run rate, making Azure OpenAI the fastest-growing segment of Microsoft’s entire cloud operation. TikTok led the charge, then the field caught up ByteDance was, at one point, the single largest spender on Azure OpenAI services. The short-form video giant was shelling out nearly $20 million per month as of 2024, accounting for roughly 25% of the platform’s total revenue. That share has since dropped below 15%, not because TikTok pulled back, but because the customer base diversified. More companies started writing bigger checks, diluting any single client’s dominance. Adobe and Meta both crossed the $1 million monthly spending threshold on Azure OpenAI services as of September 2024, earning spots on Microsoft’s top-10 customer list. Perplexity bets big on Azure Perplexity signed a $750 mill...