• The Microsoft CEO named Juniper co-founder Pradeep Sindu to lead the development of a new network card aimed at improving the performance of its Maia AI server chip.
  • The new network card, which is similar to Nvidia’s ConnectX-7 card, could potentially reduce the time it takes OpenAI to train models on Microsoft servers and reduce associated costs.
  • Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI and the integration of its technology into various products puts the company in a strong position in the highly competitive artificial intelligence software market.

Microsoft is developing a new network card that could improve the performance of its Maia AI server chip and potentially reduce the company’s reliance on chip designer Nvidia.

Developing New Products

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has hired Pradeep Sindhu, co-founder of the networking equipment developer Juniper Networks, to lead the network card effort, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft acquired Sindhu’s server chip startup, Fungible, last year.

A Year’s Wait

The new network card is similar to Nvidia’s ConnectX-7 card, which the chip developer sells alongside a graphics processor (GPU). The device could reportedly take more than a year to develop, and if successful, it could reduce the amount of time OpenAI spends training its models on Microsoft servers and reduce the cost of the process.

Microsoft has invested billions of pounds in ChatGPT maker OpenAI and integrated its technology into a wide variety of products, giving the Windows operating system maker an edge in the race to sell artificial intelligence software. In November, the company introduced Maia, a chip designed to run large language models and support AI computing

Also read: Intel, Nvidia, AMD: Who is going to win the AI chip race?