No fixed closing date.
Founders Hub
Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub
Founders Hub offers Azure credits and startup support, including credits that can pay for GPU virtual machines. It is for a privately held software startup. It is not a grant for a thesis, and it is not limited to people with a university email.
Free to apply. No equity is mentioned on the signup page. You still have to qualify, and Azure will bill anything the credits do not cover.
Who it is for
A privately held, for-profit startup building a software product or service. The public page says you can apply from an idea, including students, but the company rules still apply. You cannot already have taken more than USD $10,000 in Azure credits, and you cannot be at Series D or later.
What you get
The signup page offers up to USD $150,000 in Azure credits, access to models through Azure, and meetings with Microsoft staff. Credits are for the startup’s product, not for an unrelated lab workload.
How to get it
- Check the eligibility list on the Founders Hub page before you collect documents.
- Apply with the account they ask for. The page says applications are often processed in a few business days after business details are verified.
- If you are accepted, use the credits on the Azure machines your product actually needs, and set a budget alert so a forgotten GPU does not start charging the card.
- If you do not have a company, skip this and look at Google TPU Research Cloud or Kaggle instead.
Deadlines
There is no published closing date. Apply when your one-page description is ready. An empty calendar file would only pretend otherwise, so this page does not invent a reminder.
Read this before you apply
- The USD $150,000 figure is what the signup page said. Microsoft changes startup offers. Read the live page.
- A sole researcher with no product and no company will not fit the written rules.
- Credits are not the same thing as a national supercomputer allocation. You are a customer with a coupon.
Check before you rely on this
- Credit amounts and the model list on the Founders Hub page change. Re-read them on the day you apply.