Microsoft is set to offer AMD’s AI chips on its Azure platform and will preview its new high-performance Cobalt 100 custom processors at the Build developer conference, providing alternatives to Nvidia’s leading AI GPUs.
18 May 2024- Microsoft announced plans on Thursday to offer its cloud computing customers a platform utilizing AMD’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips, aiming to compete with Nvidia’s dominant AI components. Detailed information about these new offerings will be shared at Microsoft’s Build developer conference next week.
Microsoft will integrate clusters of AMD’s flagship MI300X AI chips into its Azure cloud computing service. This move provides an alternative to Nvidia’s high-demand H100 GPUs, which currently lead the data center chip market for AI. Typically, companies need to cluster multiple GPUs to handle the extensive data and computational requirements for building AI models or running applications.
AMD projects $4 billion in AI chip revenue this year, highlighting the capabilities of its MI300X chips in training and running large AI models. In addition to AMD and Nvidia chips, Microsoft also offers access to its own in-house AI chips, named Maia, through its cloud services.
At the Build conference, Microsoft will also preview its new Cobalt 100 custom processors, which offer a 40% performance improvement over other processors based on Arm Holdings’ technology. Initially announced in November, the Cobalt chips are currently being tested to power Teams, Microsoft’s business messaging tool, and are positioned to compete with Amazon’s in-house Graviton CPUs. Companies like Snowflake have already begun using the Cobalt chips.
This development follows Amazon’s announcement that social network Pinterest and fintech firm Robinhood Markets have started using its Graviton chips, further intensifying competition in the AI chip market.
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