At least from the article, it seems he wants to position Microsoft as someone who provides access to all models including non frontier models in order to democratize access. He sees OpenAI, Anthropic and Google as the AI giants who are trying to dictate the future.

Why do you think Microsoft is an AI giant? In my books, the AI Giants are: Alphabet, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

I wouldn't rate Meta, SpaceX, or Microsoft as AI giants, even though they have AI products.

Not really. Microsoft is more of a proprietary software monopolist that has strangled the economy for the past few decades, and they don't want to lose what remains of their lucrative position.