Microsoft to rely more on homegrown AI chips, reducing dependence on Nvidia

A Microsoft Azure Maia 300 prototype chip.

Microsoft

Microsoft will ramp up use of its homegrown artificial intelligence chips after years of reliance on Nvidia's graphics processing units, as the software giant attempts to bolster its AI stack.

Starting with its third-generation Maia AI accelerator, unveiled on Monday, Microsoft said it will mainly rely on its own silicon to handle incoming requests.

Microsoft's greatest strength in AI has been its Azure cloud, which runs a series of models for clients. Its Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot offer AI-powered services to software engineers and other office workers. And the company develops in-house models, though they've yet to make a big splash in a market dominated by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

The emerging opportunity in chips stems from unrelenting demand for advanced processors and a desire in the market for choice. Nvidia's GPUs have been the standard for AI workloads and models, and they fill Microsoft's existing data centers, while also serving to train models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

But as demand keeps growing, the model leaders have embraced a variety of silicon from companies including Amazon, Advanced Micro Devices, Cerebras, Google and, in recent months, Microsoft.

For general-purpose use, Microsoft already taps its own central processing units as well as silicon from Intel and AMD. Finance chief Amy Hood said at a Goldman Sachs conference last month that use of its own chips has helped with "margin improvement over the course of a decade."

Microsoft introduced its inaugural AI chip, the Maia 100, in 2023. It touted the Maia 200 this past January, and CEO Satya Nadella told analysts in July that Maia 200 "delivers 30% better performance per dollar than the latest generation hardware in our fleet" and said it was handling OpenAI models.

Parts of Microsoft 365 Copilot should speed up with Maia 300, said Jim Kleewein, a technical fellow at the company.