Are Microsoft’s AI plans being held back by a shortage of chips?
Guardian investigation finds apparent discrepancy between what tech company has said about its AI capacity – and the number of advanced chips it has in operation The chips are quite small and some can be held in the palm of a hand. They are fundamental to the development of artificial intelligence models – and the world’s biggest technology companies need vast numbers of them to keep ahead.…
An investigation by The Guardian has uncovered a discrepancy between Microsoft's stated AI capacity and the actual number of advanced AI chips installed in its data centers worldwide. Microsoft aimed to install 1.8 million AI chips in its data centers by the end of 2024, but according to internal documents, it has only installed 2.2 million chips, less than half of the estimated number.
This issue highlights the difficulty in assessing AI development progress due to limited transparency in the supply chain of AI chips, primarily manufactured by Nvidia. Microsoft, one of the world's largest tech companies, has invested heavily in AI infrastructure, with CEO Satya Nadella aiming to double its global datacentre footprint by mid-2027.
The company claims to have added 5 gigawatts (GW) of datacenter capacity in the past two years, but an analysis by Shaolei Ren, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, suggests Microsoft's AI capacity in 2024 is closer to 1.2GW, requiring roughly 4 million AI chips. The discrepancy may be due to Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI or the operational status of some projects, such as the Fairwater datacenters in Wisconsin and Georgia.
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- Are Microsoft’s AI plans being held back by a shortage of chips? theguardian.com
