How this Microsoft-backed billion-dollar London startup made 700 engineers sitting in India pose as AI tool

London-based Builder.ai, once valued at $1.5 billion and backed by Microsoft and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, has filed for bankruptcy after reports that its “AI-powered” app development platform was actually operated by Indian engineers, said to be around 700 of them, pretending to be artificial intelligence.

The startup, which raised over $445 million from investors including Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority, promised to make software development “as easy as ordering pizza” through its AI assistant “Natasha.”