Microsoft Unveils Its First Custom-Designed AI, Cloud Chips
Microsoft Corp. unveiled its first homegrown artificial intelligence chip and cloud-computing processor in an attempt to take more control of its technology and ramp up its offerings in the increasingly competitive market for AI computing. The company also announced new software that lets clients design their own AI assistants.
The Maia 100 chip, announced at the company's annual Ignite conference in Seattle on Wednesday, will provide Microsoft Azure cloud customers with a new way run AI programs that generate content. Microsoft is already testing the chip with its Bing and Office AI products, said Rani Borkar, a vice president who oversees Azure's chip unit. Microsoft's main AI partner, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, is also testing the processor. Both Maia and the server chip, Cobalt, will debut in some Microsoft data centers early next year.
Microsoft's multi-year investment shows how critical chips have become to gaining an edge in both AI and the cloud. Making them in-house lets companies wring performance and price benefits from the hardware. The initiative also could insulate Microsoft from becoming overly dependent on any one supplier, a vulnerability currently underscored by the industrywide scramble for Nvidia Corp.'s AI chips. Microsoft's push into processors follows similar moves by cloud rivals. Amazon.com Inc. acquired a chip maker in 2015 and sells services built on several kinds of cloud and AI chips. Google began letting customers use its AI accelerator processors in 2018.
For a company of Microsoft's scale, “it's important to optimize and integrate” every element of its hardware to provide the best performance and avoid supply-chain bottlenecks, Borkar said in an interview. “And really, at the end of the day, to
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