X

Nvidia and Microsoft Join Forces to Build AI Supercomputer

The venture aims to make the future tech available for businesses.

Kourtnee Jackson Senior Editor
Kourtnee covers TV streaming services and home entertainment news and reviews at CNET. She previously worked as an entertainment reporter at Showbiz Cheat Sheet where she wrote about film, television, music, celebrities, and streaming platforms.
Expertise Kourtnee is a longtime cord-cutter who's subscribed to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Max, Crunchyroll, Spotify and more. As a real-life user of these services, she tracks the newest releases and developments in streaming. Credentials
  • Though Kourtnee hasn't won any journalism awards yet, she's been a Netflix streaming subscriber since 2012 and knows the magic of its hidden codes.
Kourtnee Jackson
Nvidia logo set next to Microsoft logo

Nvidia and Microsoft's new collaboration will head into the realm of supercomputing. 

James Martin/CNET

Chip design company Nvidia is partnering with Microsoft to construct a large-scale AI cloud computer, the firm announced on Wednesday. Described as a multiyear collaboration, the project will integrate Microsoft's Azure cloud computing system with Nvidia's A100 and H100 chips, its Quantum-2 InfiniBand network and Nvidia AI Enterprise software. The AI computer will be the "first public cloud" to do so, the companies said.

On Monday, Nvidia said that Microsoft Azure is the first to use the Quantum-2 InfiniBand platform, which performs data and simulation operations at high speeds. The A100 and H100 processors are the company's most powerful, and can be used in a variety of applications including science and manufacturing. The AI supercomputer will harness Microsoft's virtual machines to handle more complex research and automated functions for organizations.

Nvidia also says it will use Azure to develop advanced generative AI that provides machines with the ability to create new content like code, text video or images.