Microsoft included a new risk factor in their yearly filing regarding the significance of shielding graphics processing units (GPUs) utilized in their data centers. To address the increasing need for cloud-based artificial intelligence services, the company has been significantly increasing expenditures, particularly for GPUs.
Microsoft has highlighted to investors that graphics processing units are crucial for its expanding cloud business. In its recent annual report, the software giant included language about GPUs regarding the risk of outages caused by lack of required infrastructure. This reflects the increased demand for the hardware needed to offer AI capabilities to smaller businesses. AI, particularly generative AI which involves creating text, speech, videos and images based on people's input, has become more popular following the success of chatbot ChatGPT from startup OpenAI. This has been a boon for GPU suppliers such as Nvidia and AMD. Microsoft highlighted the need for GPUs in its annual report as it works with OpenAI to develop AI models and deploy them across its products. Nvidia CEO Huang then commented at the GTC developer conference in March about Azure's H100 AI supercomputer. Microsoft has also tapped into CoreWeave, a cloud service that provides GPUs to third-party developers. Simultaneously, the company has been constructing its own AI processor, which The Information reported is going to be implemented sooner than initially planned. Other tech firms such as Alphabet, Amazon and Meta have all unveiled their own AI chips in the past decade. Microsoft anticipates its capital expenditures will rise this quarter to acquire CPU, networking hardware and GPUs, which its finance chief Amy Hood confirmed in a call with analysts. A.I. remains dependent on GPUs and parallel processing as NVIDIA's Dom Rizzo explains.
Comments