12:30 PM ET marked the start of Satya Nadella's opening keynote at Microsoft Build 2026 on June 2. The two-day developer event runs June 2-3 in San Francisco, with the keynote streamed for free and hundreds of sessions available to registered developers. In-person tickets were on sale and sold out, and Microsoft said remote viewers should register to access the full session catalog and event scheduler. Microsoft also said it will publish detailed post-keynote announcements and technical write-ups on its blog as news rolls out.

2 days, June 2-3, make up Build 2026 and shape how developers should prioritize what to watch and where to be. Microsoft moved the conference from Seattle to Fort Mason Center in San Francisco this year, and while the opening keynote from Satya Nadella was available without charge via Microsoft's livestream and the company's YouTube channel, much of the conference experience remains gated behind registration or in-person attendance.

Start with the free streams: the opening address and selected sessions are live on Microsoft's official livestream and on Microsoft’s YouTube channel. Microsoft advised developers to register even if they plan to watch remotely, because registration unlocks the event scheduler and the full session catalog, which lists hundreds of talks and hands-on labs. Microsoft has limited some breakout sessions, hands-on labs and in-person demos to attendees on site, so registered remote participants should use the online schedule to plan which talks will be available for streaming and which will be on-site only.

Tickets to attend in person were priced at $1,099 when they were on sale, and they sold out. That means developers who want direct, hands-on access to lab equipment or face time with Microsoft engineers may not get it this year unless they secured a spot. For remote viewers the practical plan is straightforward: 1) watch the keynotes live, 2) register to access the session catalog and scheduler, 3) pick the streamed sessions you care about in advance, and 4) rely on Microsoft's post-keynote blog posts for the technical write-ups and announcement details the company said it will publish.

What to expect from the announcements

Expect the conference to push platform-level priorities around agentic AI and Windows-on-ARM. Microsoft previewed the keynote with language about creating "new opportunity for developers across our platforms in this era of AI," and the session catalog lists multiple talks on agentic AI, showing agents automating tasks inside Windows and developer workflows. Microsoft signaled additional work to make Windows apps run natively on ARM and to convert parts of Windows 11 to native code to improve performance and compatibility.

Mastheads

Hardware could appear alongside software in the show-and-tell. Microsoft has announced a Surface Laptop Ultra planned for later in the year that runs on NVIDIA's new RTX Spark platform, and the RTX Spark effort, centered on an N1x chip, has been presented as bringing workstation-class performance to Windows on ARM.

Microsoft executive Pavan Davuluri posted that the company would have "something new for developers" at Build, and social posts from Microsoft and NVIDIA pointed to Computex activity occurring on the same dates with the phrase "a new era of PC." Those threads suggest Microsoft and partners may show integrations that tie cloud AI models to client hardware capabilities.

Microsoft's AI posture entering Build is important context for any announcement. In April 2026 Microsoft reworked its enterprise Copilot product and removed the consumer AI assistant from some applications as part of a broader shift in how it deploys and positions AI features. The company also shifted its formal relationship with OpenAI to a more open partnership model earlier in April 2026, and those changes are likely to affect which models and features Microsoft highlights to developers and which it reserves for enterprise or preview channels.

Stakeholder views diverge on what Build will deliver and how broadly those deliverables will land. Hardware partners and PC makers are watching for deeper Windows-on-ARM commitments and any Microsoft and NVIDIA collaborations that could reset performance expectations on Windows devices. At the same time, critics of Windows 11 have pushed Microsoft to scale back or redesign some consumer-facing AI features, a dynamic Microsoft acknowledged in previews and one that could shape whether new AI features roll out widely or remain scoped to developer or enterprise previews.

For remote developers who want more than the headline moment, the company committed to publishing post-keynote details and technical write-ups on its own blog as announcements roll out, which makes the blog and the session catalog the key reference points after the live streams end. If a session isn't streamed live, the blog posts and published technical material are the place to find the code samples, API details, and migration guidance Microsoft typically provides after Build keynotes.

Finally, plan your follow-up. If you are tracking Windows-on-ARM work, watch sessions on native ARM compilation and any demos tied to the N1x RTX Spark narrative. If you build developer tooling or backend services, focus on the agentic AI sessions that show how agents will plug into developer workflows. And if hands-on labs matter to your roadmap, note that many are reserved for on-site attendees, which means asking colleagues who attended to share notes or waiting for the published labs and write-ups on Microsoft's blog.

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Microsoft will publish detailed post-keynote announcements and technical write-ups on its blog; watch the keynote replay on Microsoft's livestream or YouTube and check the blog for code samples, API details and migration guidance.

This article was created with AI assistance.