Microsoft Unveils New AI Chip, Strengthens Partnerships with Nvidia and AMD
Summary:
Microsoft has unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) chip, the Microsoft Azure Maia AI Accelerator, designed for AI tasks and generative AI. The chip will be deployed in Microsoft's data centers by early 2024, mainly to support Copilot or Azure OpenAI Service. The company also announced expanded partnerships with chip manufacturers Nvidia and AMD. The news aligns with an ongoing trend of increased semiconductor chip production among tech and AI firms.
In a recent blog post on November 15, the tech titan Microsoft unveiled its novel artificial intelligence (AI) chip, named Microsoft Azure Maia AI Accelerator. This chip, engineered for AI applications and generative AI, was introduced alongside the Microsoft Azure Cobalt CPU, tailored for computing operations on Microsoft Cloud. Microsoft has described these chips as the final elements to complete their infrastructure setups. Reportedly, these hardware units are expected to be deployed in Microsoft's data centers by early 2024, predominantly supporting Copilot or Azure OpenAI Service.
Expressing his thoughts on the integration of the chips into the corporation's data hubs, Scott Guthrie, the Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud + AI Group, highlighted the importance of optimizing and synchronizing every layer of the infrastructure at their operating scale. He emphasized it was integral to enhance performance, diversify their supply chain, and offer clients a selection of infrastructure services.
Supporting the development of the new Maia 100 AI Accelerator, OpenAI, an AI firm that Microsoft financially supports, gave insights on the operation of its workloads on this novel infrastructure. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, assured that these advanced chips would contribute to making their AI algorithms more efficient and affordable for its audience.
Microsoft has made additional announcements concerning the expansion of its collaboration with worldwide chip producers Nvidia and AMD, with plans to incorporate some of these top-performing chips into its setup. This announcement falls in line with the ongoing trend of major tech and AI firms increasing their semiconductor chip production.
In a related update, Samsung disclosed its plans for the development of AI chips and intellectual property specifically for data centers in collaboration with the Canadian startup Tenstorrent, last October. Around the same time, there were rumors of OpenAI contemplating the in-house production of AI chips. Furthermore, on October 22, IBM, a global technology corporation, launched its state-of-the-art AI chip, boasting 22x speed acceleration and superior energy efficiency than any existing chip.
Published At
11/16/2023 8:59:30 AM
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