New Microsoft AI chip will reportedly launch next month

A new Microsoft AI chip is reportedly on the horizon. The company is rumored to be developing its own chip, code-named Athena, that could revolutionize the development and deployment of AI chatbots and other generative AI applications. 

As first reported by The Information, Athena is specifically designed to train large language models and support inference, which are two key tasks for generative AI. The chip has internally been tested by Microsoft and OpenAI employees.

Launching next month at Ignite developer’s conference, Microsoft is hoping that Athena will perform better than existing AI chips, saving the company time and money on its AI efforts. 

Other big tech companies, such as Amazon and Google, also make their own in-house chips for AI. So far, chip designer Nvidia has dominated the market for such chips, but Microsoft’s entry into the market could shake things up.

Nvidia and Microsoft are yet to make a comment.

The Redmond-based tech giant has been making a lot of moves in recent months. During last month’s event, the companny announced the official release date of its hotly-anticipated AI assistance tool, Copilot, which will be integrated in almost all Windows apps. 

Microsoft Ignite 2023 will run from November 14 to 17 in Seattle, and online keynotes will be open from November 15 to 16. You can still register for the latter here.