$100 billion! Microsoft plans to develop AI supercomputers with OpenAI

Source: Hard AI

Author: Fang Jiayao

On March 29th, media reports cited informed sources revealing that Microsoft and OpenAI are closely planning an ambitious data center project, aimed at building an AI supercomputer named "Stargate". This computer will be equipped with millions of dedicated server chips, providing powerful support for OpenAI's AI technology.

It is reported that company executives plan to launch the Stargate project as early as 2028, with hopes to gradually expand the scale and scope of the project by 2030. Moreover, the project is expected to cost as much as $100 billion, which is 100 times the cost of some of the largest data centers currently. Microsoft will fund the project, with most of the costs going towards purchasing key components for building the supercomputer - chips.

Once the Stargate project is implemented, this AI supercomputer will have computing power several orders of magnitude higher than existing resources, and "Stargate" will also be one of the largest projects planned by the company in the next six years, demonstrating Microsoft's strong confidence in advancing AI technology.

Insiders mentioned that the future of AI is hard to predict, and even a powerhouse like OpenAI failed to deliver its promised new models to Microsoft last year. Therefore, whether Microsoft is willing to continue implementing the Stargate project partly depends on OpenAI's ability to significantly enhance its AI capabilities. Nevertheless, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly stated that the main bottleneck limiting AI development is the lack of sufficient server resources.

Moreover, running such a supercomputer poses a major energy supply challenge. This is because it will require consuming at least several gigawatts of electricity, equivalent to the total power consumption of several large data centers. Participants in the discussion pointed out that by the final stages of the project, this supercomputer may require as much as 5 gigawatts of power.

Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer of data center operator Digital Realty, stated:

"Such a project is 'absolutely necessary' for achieving artificial general intelligence. While by current standards, the scale of the Stargate project may seem unimaginable, I believe that once such a supercomputer is built, the scale and performance it represents will no longer be surprising."

Although the project has not been approved yet and plans may change, it showcases important technological collaboration over the past decade and the future development prospects of the two companies. So far, Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, enabling the startup to leverage Microsoft's data centers to support ChatGPT and the models behind its conversational AI As part of the exchange, Microsoft has gained access to the secrets and exclusive resale rights of OpenAI technology. At the same time, Microsoft has also integrated OpenAI's software into the new AI Copilot feature of Office, Teams, and Bing