Microsoft Teams Up with OpenAI to Build Huge AI Supercomputer in Azure

UTC by Steve Muchoki · 3 min read
Microsoft Teams Up with OpenAI to Build Huge AI Supercomputer in Azure
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (left), and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft has announced that it is now joining hands with OpenAI to create one of the fastest artificial-intelligence supercomputers on top of Azure’s infrastructure.

During its Build developer conference, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced that it is teaming up with OpenAI, which is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company founded by Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Sam Altman and Wojciech Zaremba, to create one the fastest computer globally on top of Azure’s infrastructure.

Microsoft Teams up with OpenAI

Techcrunch.com reported that the supercomputer will have a 285, 000 core machine power, hence ranking it among the top 5 in the world. In addition, the supercomputer will have a 10,000 GPUs and also a 400 GB/S of network connectivity per server. Microsoft spokesperson said:

“The computer is connected to Azure but is a dedicated resource of OpenAi’s. They paid for the system, paying both Microsoft and other suppliers. The total cost is not being disclosed.”

OpenAI has been working to advance digital intelligence in a way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, whereby it is not constrained by the need to generate a financial return. OpenAI said in a statement:

“Since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on positive human impact.”

The company added:

“We believe AI should be an extension of individual human wills and, in the spirit of liberty, as broadly and evenly distributed as possible.”

OpenAI has mastered the art of harnessing the power of AI by deploying deep learning, rather than hand-code a new algorithm for each challenge. It has been able to design architectures that can twist themselves into a wide range of algorithms based on the data given.

In the last funding, which was a Corporate Round that happened on July 23, 2019, the OpenAI raised a total of $1 billion. This has given the company a step ahead of most of the other AI-based startups, which essentially run for profits.

OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, told TechCrunch:

“As we’ve learned more and more about what we need and the different limits of all the components that make up a supercomputer, we were really able to say, ‘if we could design our dream system, what would it look like?’ And then Microsoft was able to build it.”

In Other News

Besides teaming up with OpenAI, Microsoft also announced that it joined efforts with Giving Tech Labs to unleash the power of public interest technology. The company announced during the Build 2020 that it will offer developers a preview of X4Impact. It is a great opportunity for developers to widen their exposure as X4Impact is built on Azure and is an AI-powered market intelligence platform for social innovation.

Moreover, as Coinspeaker has already reported, Microsoft acquired a robotic-process automation company Softomotive. Microsoft will integrate Softomotive’s operations with its own RPA offering known as Power Automate.

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