On June 16, it was reported that Microsoft is considering launching a self-hosted optimized version based on DeepSeek V4 in its Copilot Cowork, to provide more cost-effective model options, and the product's pricing model will also fully transition to a pay-per-use basis.

With the explosive growth of agent reasoning tasks, the previously used Anthropic Claude technology in Copilot Cowork, which highly relies on complex reasoning, led to a sharp increase in token consumption. Charles Lamanna, Microsoft's Executive Vice President, revealed that the original fixed-rate pricing model has become unsustainable under heavy usage scenarios where users perform hundreds of tasks per week, as high operational costs are rapidly increasing. In fact, Microsoft had already made similar pay-per-use adjustments for GitHub Copilot earlier.

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In response to market concerns about potential compliance and geopolitical issues arising from the introduction of Chinese AI models, Microsoft emphasized that DeepSeek would be an optional option and fully hosted on the Azure cloud platform. This ensures that customer data remains within Microsoft's cloud while the model has been customized with bias prevention protections. This strategic move aligns closely with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's recent advocacy for building a diverse AI model ecosystem. Nadella previously defined AI as a consumer business and emphasized that enterprises should flexibly adjust models based on specific use cases and costs.

Industry experts point out that this marks a further acceleration of the commercialization of generative AI into the "de-bubbling" deep waters. Shifting from early cost-unaware subscription models to precise computing power operations based on demand, Microsoft's move not only seeks a balance between cost and performance but also indicates that large tech giants are moving from single-technology dependencies to multi-model integration and precise cost control when building AI ecosystems. It is expected that the final decision on this adjustment will be officially announced in the coming weeks.