Microsoft Corporation, together with AMD, will develop a specialized chip that is sharpened to work with artificial intelligence. This is part of Microsoft’s broader strategy to get more chips for AI-related tasks. In fact, Microsoft is willing to dump money on AMD to get its own AI chip for data centers.
Image source: AMD
Amazon and Alphabet have both had their own processors for a while, including some focused on AI tasks. Microsoft now mainly relies on NVIDIA solutions, which dominate the market for AI accelerators. However, the company wants its own chip, so it funded AMD and is working with the latter to develop its own processor for AI tasks, codenamed Athena.
After the cooperation of the companies became known to a wide audience, AMD shares rose by more than 9%, Microsoft shares gained about 1%, and NVIDIA shares, on the contrary, fell by 1.9%.
In recent years, Microsoft has built a semiconductor business under former Intel CEO Rani Borkar, and the group now has nearly 1,000 employees. Last month, The Information reported on Microsoft’s development of the Athena artificial intelligence chip.
However, Microsoft isn’t ending its partnership with NVIDIA as the need for AI-enabled chips has become more acute than ever over the past six months. According to Microsoft, thousands of NVIDIA GPUs were required to create the ChatGPT AI bot. The area of AI is also a top priority for AMD. Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Lisa Su explained: “We are very excited about our artificial intelligence capabilities – this is our #1 strategic priority“.
Creating an alternative to NVIDIA’s lineup becomes a challenge as the company not only offers hardware solutions, but also various software that work together. We’re talking chips, programming language, networking equipment, and servers that allow customers to quickly expand their capabilities.
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