Microsoft introduces chips, integrated systems for AI

ISTANBUL

Microsoft on Wednesday introduced custom-designed chips and integrated systems for artificial intelligence (AI).

The Microsoft Azure Maia AI Accelerator is optimized for AI tasks and generative AI, while the Microsoft Azure Cobalt CPU is an Arm-based processor tailored to run general-purpose compute workloads on the Microsoft Cloud.

"The chips represent a last puzzle piece for Microsoft to deliver infrastructure systems – which include everything from silicon choices, software and servers to racks and cooling systems – that have been designed from top to bottom and can be optimized with internal and customer workloads in mind," the company said in a statement.

The two chips will start to roll out early next year to Microsoft’s datacenters, initially powering the company’s services such as Microsoft Copilot or Azure OpenAI Service, it said.

They will be part of products from industry partners to help meet the exploding demand for efficient, scalable and sustainable compute power and the needs of customers that aim to use the latest cloud and AI technologies.