Microsoft Corp. is working with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on the chipmaker\u2019s expansion into artificial intelligence processors, according to people with knowledge of the situation, part of a multipronged strategy to secure more of the highly coveted components.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The software giant is providing support to bolster AMD\u2019s efforts, including engineering resources, and working with the chipmaker on a homegrown Microsoft processor for AI workloads, code-named Athena, the people said.<\/p>\n
Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman, denied that AMD is part of Athena. \u201cAMD is a great partner,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, they are not involved in Athena.\u201d<\/p>\n
AMD shares jumped more than 6.5% on Thursday, and Microsoft gained about 1%. AMD representatives declined to comment. Nvidia stock declined 1.9%.<\/p>\n
The arrangement is part of a broader rush to augment AI processing power, which is in great demand after the explosion of chatbots like ChatGPT and other services based on the technology.<\/p>\n
Microsoft is both a top provider of cloud-computing services and a driving force of AI use.<\/p>\n
The company has\u00a0pumped $10 billion<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0into ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and has vowed to add such features to its entire software lineup.<\/p>\n The move also reflects Microsoft\u2019s deepening involvement in the chip industry.<\/p>\n The company has been building up a silicon division over the past several years under former Intel Corp. executive Rani Borkar, and the group now has a staff of almost 1,000 employees.<\/p>\n The Information last month\u00a0<\/strong>reported<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>on Microsoft\u2019s development of the Athena artificial-intelligence chip.<\/p>\n Several hundred of those employees are working on the Athena project, and Microsoft has spent about $2 billion on its chip efforts, according to one of the people. But the undertaking doesn\u2019t portend a split with Nvidia.<\/p>\n Microsoft intends to keep working closely with that company, whose chips are the workhorses for training and running AI systems.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also trying to find ways to get more Nvidia\u2019s processors, underscoring the urgent shortage Microsoft and others are facing.<\/p>\n Microsoft\u2019s relationship with OpenAI \u2014 and its own slate of newly introduced AI services \u2014 are requiring computing power at a level beyond what the company expected when it ordered chips and set up data centers.<\/p>\n OpenAI\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also updating older products like GitHub\u2019s code-generating tool. All of those AI programs run in Microsoft\u2019s Azure cloud and require the pricey and powerful processors Nvidia provides.<\/p>\n The area is also a key priority for AMD. \u201cWe are very excited about our opportunity in AI \u2014 this is our No. 1 strategic priority,\u201d chief executive officer Lisa Su said during the chipmaker\u2019s earnings call Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Su also said that AMD has an opportunity to make partly customized chips for its biggest customers to use in their AI data centres.<\/p>\n Borkar\u2019s team at Microsoft, which has also worked on chips for servers and Surface computers, is now prioritizing the Athena project. It\u2019s developing a graphics processing unit that can be used for training and running AI models.<\/p>\n The product is already being tested internally and could be more widely available as soon as next year, said one of the people.<\/p>\n Even if the project makes that timeline, a first version is just a starting point, the people said. It takes years to build a good chip, and Nvidia has a substantial head start.<\/p>\n Nvidia is the chip supplier of choice for many providers of tools for generative AI, including Amazon.com Inc.\u2019s\u00a0AWS<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and Google cloud, and Elon Musk has secured thousands of its processors for his fledgling AI business, according to\u00a0reports<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Creating an alternative to Nvidia\u2019s lineup will be a challenging task. That company offers a package of software and hardware that works together \u2014 including chips, a programming language, networking equipment and servers \u2014 letting customers rapidly upgrade their capabilities.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one of the reasons Nvidia has become so dominant. But Microsoft isn\u2019t alone in trying to develop in-house AI processors.<\/p>\n Cloud rival Amazon acquired Annapurna Labs in 2016 and has developed two different AI processors. Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google also has a training chip of its own.<\/p>\n The companies are teaming up to offer an alternative to Nvidia, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":490203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[39306,50117,577,35793,74122,123,3838],"class_list":["post-490193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-advanced-micro-devices-amd","tag-ai-chips","tag-amd","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-lisa-su","tag-microsoft","tag-nvidia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490205,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490193\/revisions\/490205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: AMD launches processors it says beat the Apple M2 and Intel Core i7<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"