Microsoft on Wednesday announced a $4 billion package of cash, artificial-intelligence credits and cloud services aimed at expanding AI education worldwide. The five-year commitment, reported by the New York Times, includes the launch of Elevate Academy, a programme designed to help adults acquire AI skills. The company says the effort will enable 20 million people to earn industry credentials and will be supported by existing philanthropy units now consolidated under the Microsoft Elevate banner. The broader pledge follows a separate initiative unveiled a day earlier with OpenAI and Anthropic to support U.S. schools. The three companies are providing $23 million to create the National Academy for AI Instruction, a training hub run by the American Federation of Teachers that will open in New York this autumn. The academy intends to offer in-person workshops and online courses at no cost to 400,000 K-12 educators over five years, helping them integrate tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot into lesson planning, grading and other classroom tasks. Microsoft is contributing $12.5 million to the teachers’ programme, while OpenAI is providing $10 million and Anthropic $500,000. AFT President Randi Weingarten said the partnership aims to ensure educators ‘harness AI wisely, ethically and safely’ amid rapid adoption of generative technologies in schools. Together, the two announcements underscore Big Tech’s push to shape AI literacy across both the current workforce and the next generation of students.