- Musk announces “Macrohard” to connect xAI’s software vision with outsourced manufacturing
- Project combines AI platform development with Apple-style design and Microsoft-style licensing
- Macrohard will extend xAI’s reach beyond AI models to broader computing platforms
Elon Musk has announced an ambitious new software and platform project ‘hilariously’ called “Macrohard”.
In a post on X, Musk described the plan, which will be housed in his AI company xAI, as being “profoundly impactful on a massive scale.”
But what is Macrohard? Basically, it appears to be an AI-powered project that will develop a series of products that will be manufactured by external partners.
Accepting Microsoft
“Our goal,” Musk said, “is to create a company that can do everything but make physical objects directly, but will be able to do it indirectly, like Apple has other companies make their phones.”
Newsweek notes that the design of the project indicates a potential challenge to Microsoft’s long-standing platform model.
A commenter on X asked Grok what Macrohard was and was told by AI: “The name is a playful pun on ‘Microsoft’, implying a ‘macro’ (large-scale) and ‘hard’ (challenging) approach to AI-driven software development. Musk described it as an attempt to simulate an entire software company using AI agents, without outsourcing the production of hardware to Microsoft physical hardware.”
Instead of building devices itself, xAI would set standards, license software and define system requirements for other companies to use.
This approach would align xAI’s ecosystem with Apple’s design-led model while also mirroring Microsoft’s Windows licensing strategy.
Newsweek adds that so far there haven’t been many external job postings associated with Macrohard, suggesting that most of the project work will be handled internally by xAI staff and AI agents capable of writing and improving production-quality software.
The infrastructure behind the project will be supported by Colossus, xAI’s supercomputer. The image of the Macrohard logo Musk shared on X (which you can see at the top of the page) was painted on the roof of the Colossus II supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee.
Project details are few and far between right now, but it’s fair to assume that Musk is looking to expand xAI beyond AI models and into broader areas of computing.
The @xAI MACROHARD project will be profoundly impactful on a huge scale 😉 Our goal is to create a company that can do anything but make physical objects directly, but will be able to do it indirectly, like Apple has other companies make their… https://t.co/7mDcBOxFLi12 October 2025
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