In April, an unconfirmed report from The Information claimed that Microsoft had developed an in-house processor, codenamed Athena, specifically to power productive AI servers. Now a new report from another media outlet claims that Microsoft is collaborating with AMD to develop an artificial intelligence chip.
According to Bloomberg’s report, citing anonymous sources, Microsoft allegedly provided financial support for AMD’s entry into the AI chip market. In turn, AMD is reportedly helping Microsoft build its in-house Athena AI processor, with several hundred people already working on the chip. However, AMD and Microsoft have not confirmed these news.
If this news is true, it appears that AMD is trying to chase the AI market share currently dominated by rival NVIDIA, with processors like the H100 in servers powering Microsoft’s Bing Chat and other AI services. Microsoft also seems to want to produce its own artificial intelligence chips to avoid being dependent on NVIDIA’s solutions.
Of course, Microsoft and AMD are old friends when it comes to hardware partnerships. Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X game consoles carry custom AMD chips. From this perspective, it seems quite possible that they have made a new partnership.
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