What you need to know
- Microsoft and OpenAI have reportedly invested over $100 billion in a new project, Stargate.
- It's a data center that will help support both companies' AI advances by meeting their high demand for GPUs.
- The project is expected to launch in 2028 and will reduce the overreliance on NVIDIA for AI chips.
NVIDIA is undoubtedly cashing out as we leap toward the most significant technology revolution with AI. Due to the rising demand for GPUs, the company was ranked as the world's most profitable semiconductor chip brand for Q3 2023. This designation translates to $18.12 billion in revenue and a $10.42 billion profit.
Admittedly, we're edging closer to a point where NVIDIA can't meet or satisfy the alarmingly high demand for AI chips as more companies warm up and adopt generative AI.
As it happens, Microsoft and OpenAI have reportedly joined forces to build a data center to support their high demand for chips, facilitate faster AI advances and development, and reduce their overreliance on NVIDIA for chips.
The project could cost up to $100 billion and possibly be launched in 2028. It'll also feature an AI-powered supercomputer, Stargate (via The Information). The outlet also claims that Microsoft is working on a supercomputer for OpenAI that's significantly smaller than the one highlighted above and is slated to ship in 2026.
What can we expect from Microsoft and OpenAI's new joint effort?
While Microsoft and OpenAI haven't confirmed the claims, a Microsoft Spokesman disclosed the company's heavy investment and future with AI when speaking to Business Insider by indicating:
"We are always planning for the next generation of infrastructure innovations needed to continue pushing the frontier of AI capability."
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With this in mind, it's clear that Microsoft isn't planning to back away from its AI-focused efforts anytime soon. The data center will help improve and support the companies' computational needs. As indicated by our sister site, TechRadar, the $100 billion invested in this project is enough to cover Microsoft's expenses on servers and equipment for a whole year.
According to a separate report by The Next Platform:
"The first thing to note about the rumored "Stargate" system that Microsoft is planning to build to support the computational needs of its large language model partner, OpenAI, is that the people doing the talking – reportedly OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman – are talking about a data center, not a supercomputer. And that is because the data center – and perhaps multiple data centers within a region with perhaps as many as 1 million XPU computational devices – will be the supercomputer."
The Stargate project will have more computing power compared to the existing power supplied by Microsoft to OpenAI from its data centers. While this sounds impressive, reports indicate there won't be enough electricity to power AI advances soon. Reaching such heights in computing will require more power.
