Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, U.S., January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/ File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Microsoft has agreed to give U.S. agencies a discount on its cloud services, the General Services Administration said Tuesday, as part of the administration’s push to sign deals with tech companies for departments across the executive branch.
The deal will save the U.S. government up to $3 billion in the first year, according to GSA and Microsoft. Reuters could not immediately verify that figure.
As part of the agreement, the company will offer free access to Microsoft Copilot, its generative AI chatbot, to existing federal government users, according to the company. Agencies can also get lower prices on cloud products such as Microsoft Sentinel and Azure Monitoring.
Agencies can opt in to the offer through Sept. 2026, according to GSA.
GSA, the agency responsible for signing government-wide deals with vendors, has announced similar deals in recent weeks. The agency in August announced that cloud competitors Google and Amazon Web Services had agreed to discounts. The goal is to offer commercial AI tools across the federal government, according to GSA.
(Reporting by Courtney RozenEditing by Peter Graff)
