Microsoft has unveiled a brand new chip that’s supposed to be used in synthetic intelligence (AI) functions in a information publish printed on Nov. 15.

The corporate stated that it unveiled the chip, named the Azure Maia 100 AI Accelerator, at its Microsoft Ignite convention on the identical day. It stated that the Maia 100 chip is optimized to be used in synthetic intelligence functions, together with generative AI.

Microsoft’s weblog publish additionally quoted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who stated that his firm — greatest identified for ChatGPT — contributed to the chip’s design. Altman stated:

“Since first partnering with Microsoft, we’ve collaborated to co-design Azure’s AI infrastructure at each layer … We have been excited when Microsoft first shared their designs for the Maia chip, and we’ve labored collectively to refine and check it with our fashions.”

Altman added that Azure’s structure is “now optimized all the way down to the silicon with Maia.” He stated that this enchancment will result in extra succesful AI fashions and extra inexpensive entry. OpenAI has by the way paused paid subscriptions because of excessive demand.

In a separate interview with CNBC, Microsoft Company Vice President for Azure {Hardware} Programs Rani Borkar stated that Microsoft is presently testing how the Maia 100 works with its Bing AI chatbot and its GitHub Copilot coding assistant. It is usually testing the chip’s potential to energy OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 Turbo massive language mannequin (LLM).

Microsoft concurrently introduced the Azure Cobalt CPU Cobalt 100 Arm chip, which is meant for general-purpose computing on the cloud. The corporate stated that each chips will probably be launched in early 2024 inside its personal knowledge facilities.

AI race

Other than Microsoft, a number of different trade heavyweights are additionally making strides in AI chip improvement. Nvidia presently leads the way in which with its H100 Tensor Core GPU chips, that are extensively used all through the AI trade.

The truth is, Microsoft stated in as we speak’s weblog publish that it’s rising its trade partnerships with a purpose to present clients with entry to Nvidia’s H100 chips and its upcoming H200 chips. CNBC, in the meantime, recommended that Maia will compete with the H100 chip.

A scarcity of Nvidia’s chips available in the market presents a major alternative for different tech corporations to bolster their chip manufacturing. Experiences in October stated that OpenAI may start producing chips in-house. Meta introduced particulars of its subsequent era of AI chips in Might. Google in August introduced a chip known as Cloud TPUv5e to be used in AI.