A unique AI chip from Microsoft that might rival Nvidia has been announced

Microsoft introduced two processors at Ignite in Seattle on Wednesday.

First, the Maia 100 AI processor might compete with Nvidia's popular AI GPUs. The second, a Cobalt 100 Arm chip, might compete with Intel processors for general computing.

Cash-rich tech corporations are offering more cloud infrastructure options for application running. Alibaba, Amazon, and Google have done this for years. It was estimated that Microsoft, with $144 billion in cash at the end of October, had 21.5% cloud market share in 2022, behind Amazon.

Google introduced their first AI tensor processor in 2016. In 2018, Amazon Web Services introduced its Graviton Arm-based chip and Inferentia AI processor, and in 2020, Trainium for model training.

When GPUs are scarce, cloud providers may offer AI processors to meet demand. But unlike Nvidia and AMD, Microsoft and its cloud computing peers won't allow enterprises buy servers with their CPUs.

Microsoft created Sidekicks, liquid-cooled gear that fits in racks adjacent to Maia servers, in addition to the Maia chip. The company can install server and Sidekick racks without retrofitting, a spokesman said.