Microsoft has made great progress in the field of artificial intelligence over the past months. The company, which has invested millions of dollars in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is also working on its own hardware products. Most recently, it unveiled the Azure Maia 100 chip to power its Azure cloud systems.

Microsoft unveils AI chips Maia 100 and Cobalt 100

Microsoft has designed its own AI chips that will power Azure cloud computing services starting early next year. The chips, called Azure Maia 100 and Azure Cobalt 100, were custom-built in Microsoft’s silicon lab.

The Maia 100 is built on TSMC’s 5nm architecture. Built with more than 105 billion transistors, the AI chip is optimized for large language models. Maia 100, which has a total bandwidth of 4.8 terabits, was designed with OpenAI’s feedback.

The Cobalt 100 is a 64-bit, 128-core Arm-based chip that targets more power efficiency. Microsoft says it offers up to 40 percent better performance than Arm-based server chips.

Both custom chips are also said to have liquid cooling support. This also paved the way for Microsoft to redesign its server racks. In this way, it was claimed that it would provide significant advantages in performance and efficiency compared to existing solutions.

By designing its own processors, Microsoft aims to increase data center capacity and optimize hardware for artificial intelligence. The new chips will run services from Microsoft’s partners such as OpenAI and power Azure cloud systems.

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