Microsoft has been developing its own AI chip `` Athena '' in-house since 2019 and is already testing with OpenAI's large-scale language model

Since around 2019, Microsoft has been working on developing an AI chip that can be used to train large-scale language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and GPT-4, reports The Information. According to reports, some Microsoft and OpenAI employees are already testing LLM's performance with AI chips under development.

Microsoft Readies AI Chip as Machine Learning Costs Surge — The Information
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-readies-ai-chip-as-machine-learning-costs-surge

Microsoft Building Its Own AI Chip on TSMC's 5nm Process | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-athena-ai-chip-tsmc

Microsoft reportedly working on its own AI chips that may rival Nvidia's - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/18/23687912/microsoft-athena-ai-chips-nvidia

New Microsoft AI chip no threat to Nvidia, but growing LLM needs drive custom silicon | VentureBeat
https://venturebeat.com/ai/new-microsoft-ai-chip-no-threat-to-nvidia-but-growing-llm-needs-drive-custom-silicon/

Microsoft reportedly tests chips in stealth mode to boost AI performance | Windows Central
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/microsoft-reportedly-tests-chips-in-stealth-mode-to-boost-ai-performance

Microsoft developing its own AI chip - The Information | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-developing-its-own-ai-chip-information-2023-04-18/

At the time of writing, NVIDIA has become a major supplier of AI chips, and companies are all trying to buy NVIDIA GPUs. It has been pointed out that OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT for chat AI, needs more than 30,000 NVIDIA GPUs, A100 , to commercialize ChatGPT. The H100 , a GPU for AI made by NVIDIA, is sold for more than $ 40,000 on eBay, an Internet auction site, so it shows how demand for high-end chips for AI is increasing. Verge points out.

The Information reports that Microsoft is shifting to developing its own AI chip instead of using NVIDIA's AI chip. According to reports, Microsoft hopes to save investment in AI chips by developing its own AI chips. The project is codenamed 'Athena' and the latest version is being considered for production on TSMC's 5nm process.

According to reports, the Athena chip is designed to train LLM and similar software, including inference from data acquired by AI models during training. It's unclear if Microsoft will make the Athena chip available to customers of its own cloud service, Azure, but Athena could become widely available within Microsoft and OpenAI as early as 2024.

The reason OpenAI is included is because Microsoft entered into a long-term partnership with OpenAI in January 2023. In addition, it is said that the operation of Athena has already started partially with the latest LLM such as GPT-4.

Microsoft announces that it has invested hundreds of billions of yen in OpenAI and signed a long-term partnership - GIGAZINE

Since Microsoft deploys AI-based functions on Bing , Office apps, and GitHub , the benefits of developing AI chips are expected to be greater than other companies.

It should be noted that not only Microsoft is developing its own chips for AI, but also giant technology companies such as Google, Amazon, and Meta are already developing their own chips.

However, Microsoft does not seem to see Athena as a complete replacement for NVIDIA GPUs. In March 2023, Microsoft will partner with NVIDIA on ' DGX Cloud '.

Microsoft has been working on ARM-based chip development for several years, and in 2020, ` ` Microsoft is considering designing an ARM-based processor for servers, '' Bloomberg reported. These ARM-based chips have yet to appear, but Microsoft is working with AMD and Qualcomm to develop custom chips for the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro X.

In addition, The Information says that Athena may end with a subtle theme, and it is unknown whether the project will develop or end unannounced. However, given the recent development of generative AI and the popularity of chat AI installed in Bing, Tom's Hardware points out that it will not be surprising if Athena develops further.