Microsoft Launches Custom AI Chips, As Competition Heats Up With Nvidia And Google

By -

 

Bill Gates Steps Down From Microsoft's Board

Microsoft unveiled its first custom chips designed for AI.

GETTY IMAGES
Microsoft debuted its first pair of custom artificial intelligence chips designed to train large language models Wednesday as the tech giant looks to compete with chipmaker Nvidia, as well as Amazon and Google, sending the Redmond, Washington-based company’s stock to yet another record high.


KEY FACTS

Microsoft announced two chips, the Microsoft Azure Maia 100 AI Accelerator and the Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 central processing unit, which the company said are optimized for AI, generative AI and cloud computing, as the company looks to compete with Nvidia’s popular AI graphics processing units.

The chips, which Microsoft plans to release early next year at company data centers, are designed to power its Bing AI chatbot, Microsoft’s Copilot and Azure OpenAI, which the company said will “help meet the exploding demand for efficient, scalable and sustainable compute power” and as users look to “take advantage of the latest cloud and AI breakthroughs.”

Shares of Microsoft, which have surged more than 54% on the year, continue to hit record highs, rising to just over $369 Wednesday.

TANGENT

Share prices of Nvidia—a leading chip producer behind generative AI—have skyrocketed in recent months, surpassing $502 per share in August before declining narrowly to nearly $490 as of Wednesday. The company’s impressive stock hike over the summer came on the heels of a spike in its quarterly sales and profits, beating analysts’ expectations by more than 20%, and as generative AI platforms take off, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing Chat.

KEY BACKGROUND

Amazon and Google have both developed custom chips for cloud computing and have entered the blossoming AI arena. Amazon in September announced plans to invest as much as $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic, which the company said it hopes to use in its products and services. Google also invested $300 million in Anthropic late last year, saying it plans to co-develop AI computing systems. Microsoft, which backs ChatGPT maker OpenAI, announced in an earnings report last month it had raked in more than $56 billion in sales over the previous quarter, beating analyst projections as it leaned heavily into artificial intelligence, including its Azure cloud business.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Characters In BBC’s Documentary On TB Joshua Unknown To Us – Synagogue Church

By -
Image
  The Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN) has countered the BBC documentary on the late Temitope Babatunde Joshua, known as TB Joshua, founder of SCOAN. SCOAN described the documentary against TB Joshua as unfounded, and that the characters interviewed in the report were unknown to the church. The church, in a statement signed by its Public Affairs Director, Mr Dare Adejumo, said the statement was aimed at disabusing public minds from the report. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the BBC released a highly controversial and damning documentary on the late TB Joshua on Monday, accusing him of various crimes, including rape, against some members. SCOAN said, “BBC World Services investigative unit, code-named Africa Eye, came out this week with weird and strange episodes of atrocities against the late founder of SCOAN.” It said that to investigate and publish or broadcast reports was a central kernel of journalism, but to do so outside the ethics and fundamental principles
Read more

NBA Suspends Canada’s Joshua Primo For 4 Games For Exposing Himself To Women

By -
Image
  The NBA has suspended former San Antonio Spurs guard  Joshua Primo   for four games   ... after it says it found he exposed his private parts to multiple women. The league announced the ban on Friday morning ... saying an investigation into the free agent revealed he had "engaged in inappropriate and offensive behavior." NBA officials called his actions "conduct detrimental to the league." They did, however, note that they "did not find evidence that he engaged in any sexual or other misconduct apart from these brief exposures." "Primo maintains that his conduct was not intentional," the league said. Dr. Hillary Cauthen , Primo's former therapist, was the first to  bring the allegations  against Primo to light after she claimed last fall that he exposed himself to her on nine separate occasions. Dr. Cauthen's attorney,  Tony Buzbee , alleged the Spurs were aware of Primo's actions, but didn't take action. Cauthen went on to file
Read more

Sky Sports' On-Air Mix-Up: Chelsea Players Mistakenly Introduced as Axel Disasi Instead of Noni Madueke in Carabao Cup Semifinal

By -
Image
 Sky Sports were left red-faced after an on-screen graphic mistakenly introduced Chelsea defender Axel Disasi as Noni Madueke on Tuesday night. The pair were both the scoresheet as the Blues thrashed Middlesbrough 6-1 at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final to boo their place at Wembley. But when Disasi spoke to Sky Sports after the game, an on-screen graphic introduced him as Madueke instead. Madueke is four years younger than his Chelsea teammate, plays in a different role and is English, while Disasi is French. Viewers immediately spotted the mistake and took to social media to flag up the glaring error.  Sky Sports with a huge mistake as that is Axel Disasi, not Noni Madueke,' another added, while a third described the gaffe as a 'howler'. A fourth commented: 'Sky sports calling Disasi Madueke. They’ve done it again.' Disasi scored Chelsea's third goal in the 6-1 rout, converting Raheem Sterling's cross at the far post after th
Read more