Microsoft Corp is working with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) on the chipmaker’s expansion into artificial intelligence (AI) processors, people with knowledge of the situation said.
The cooperation is part of a multipronged strategy to secure more of the highly coveted components, they said.
The companies are teaming up to offer an alternative to Nvidia Corp, which dominates the market for AI-capable chips called graphics processing units, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
Photo: REUTERS
The software giant is providing support to bolster AMD’s efforts, including engineering resources and working with the chipmaker on a homegrown Microsoft processor for AI workloads, code-named Athena, the people said.
Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw denied that AMD is part of the Athena project.
“AMD is a great partner,” he said. “However, they are not involved in Athena.”
The arrangement is part of a broader rush to augment AI processing power, which is in great demand after the explosion of chatbots such as ChatGPT and other services based on the technology. Microsoft is a top provider of cloud-computing services and a driving force of AI use. The company has pumped US$10 billion into ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and has vowed to add such features to its entire software lineup.
The move also reflects Microsoft’s deepening involvement in the chip industry. The company has been building up a silicon division over the past several years under former Intel Corp vice president Rani Borkar, and the group now has a staff of almost 1,000 employees.
Tech news Web site The Information last month reported on Microsoft’s development of the Athena AI chip.
Several hundred of those employees are working on the Athena project, and Microsoft has spent about US$2 billion on its chip efforts, one of the people said.
However, the undertaking does not portend a split with Nvidia. Microsoft intends to keep working closely with Nvidia, whose chips are the workhorses for training and running AI systems.
It is also trying to find ways to get more Nvidia processors, underscoring the urgent shortage Microsoft and others are facing.
Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI — and its own slate of newly introduced AI services — are requiring computing power at a level beyond what the company expected when it ordered chips and set up data centers.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT service has drawn interest from businesses that want to use it as part of their own products or corporate applications, and Microsoft has introduced a chat-based version of Bing and new AI-enhanced Office tools.
It is also updating older products such as GitHub’s code-generating tool. All of those AI programs run in Microsoft’s Azure cloud and require the pricey and powerful processors Nvidia provides.
The area is also a key priority for AMD.
“We are very excited about our opportunity in AI — this is our No. 1 strategic priority,” AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said during the chipmaker’s earnings call on Tuesday. “We are in the very early stages of the AI computing era, and the rate of adoption and growth is faster than any other technology in recent history.”
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