"Performance 40%↑" MS to Launch Self-Developed AI Chip 'Cobalt100' Next Week

Microsoft (MS) is set to launch its self-developed artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor 'Cobalt 100' next week, marking the beginning of intense competition in cloud central processing units (CPUs).

According to IT specialized media TechCrunch on the 16th (local time), MS plans to release Cobalt 100 at its annual developer conference 'Build' next week.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

'Cobalt 100' is a high-performance computing CPU unveiled by MS in November last year. It is designed to deliver higher efficiency and performance in cloud services.

Scott Gersky, MS Vice President of AI and Cloud Computing, stated, "Cobalt 100 will offer 40% better performance than other ARM-based chips on the market," signaling a direct challenge to Amazon's 'Graviton.' Graviton is a chip developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for high-performance computing.

The launch of Cobalt 100 by MS is expected to intensify competition surrounding cloud CPUs.

MS explained that it is providing Cobalt 100 to Adobe, famous for 'Photoshop,' and cloud-based data solution provider Snowflake. Additionally, starting next week, customers of the Azure cloud service will be able to use AMD's latest graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerator, the MI300X.

The MI300X targets NVIDIA's high-performance AI chip, the H100. When AMD launched the MI300X in December last year, it claimed to offer 2.4 times the memory density and more than 1.6 times the bandwidth compared to the H100. MS, Meta, and Oracle have also announced plans to use this chip.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.