Microsoft Readies AI Chip as Machine Learning Costs Surge »
theinformation.com: [Transcription] After placing an early bet on OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, Microsoft has another secret weapon in its arsenal: its own artificial intelligence chip for powering the large-language models responsible for understanding and generating humanlike language.
The software giant has been developing the chip, internally code-named Athena, since as early as 2019, according to two people with direct knowledge of the project. The chips are already available to a small group of Microsoft and OpenAI employees, who are testing the technology, one of them said. Microsoft is hoping the chip will perform better than what it currently buys from other vendors, saving it time and money on its costly AI efforts. Other prominent tech companies, including Amazon, Google and Facebook, also make their own in-house chips for AI.
That's not to say Microsoft sees Athena as replacing Nvidia entirely.
In March, the two companies partnered on Nvidia’s DGX Cloud specifically for AI supercomputing and the Nvidia Omniverse cloud, both using Azure and support for Microsoft 365. Though the report suggests Athena could be a "touchy subject," Microsoft reportedly doesn't see its chip as a "broad replacement for Nvidia's products."
Microsoft has been secretly working on an artificial intelligence chip, code-named Athena, since 2019. The chip is designed for training large-language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and could help alleviate the shortage of specialized computers needed for AI processing.
The project was initiated due to concerns about the company lagging behind Google and Amazon, which have developed their own AI chips. At least 300 employees are working on Athena, which is already available to a small group of Microsoft and OpenAI employees for testing.
It is expected that Microsoft will make Athena available for internal use and for OpenAI by next year, but it is still debating whether to offer the chip to its Azure cloud computing customers. The development of Athena could potentially reduce costs for running AI applications and help Microsoft negotiate better terms with companies like Nvidia.
blogs.bing.com: Driving more traffic and value to publishers from the new Bing
[Transcription] [Excerpt] In addition to what we’ve already built into the preview experience, we are also exploring additional capabilities for publishers including our more than 7,500 Microsoft Start partner brands.
We recently met with some of our partners to begin exploring ideas and to get feedback on how we can continue to distribute content in a way that is meaningful in traffic and revenue for our partners. As we look to continue to evolve the model together, we shared some early ideas we’re exploring including:
An expanded hover experience where hovering over a link from a publisher will display more links from that publisher giving the user more ways to engage and driving more traffic to the publisher’s website.
Microsoft’s Bing chatbot is getting more ads
For our Microsoft Start partners, placing a rich caption of Microsoft Start licensed content beside the chat answer helping to drive more user engagement with the content on Microsoft Start where we share the ad revenue with the partner. We’re also exploring placing ads in the chat experience to share the ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response.
Microsoft launches Loop, its Notion and Asana competitor »
microsoft.com: New Microsoft Loop app is built for modern co-creation
[Transcription] Today is the start of the Microsoft Loop app journey and we’re thrilled to announce the Loop app is available in public preview!
Documents have always been more than just a means of recording information—they have been a way for us to connect and collaborate, sharing our thoughts, insights, and aspirations with others so that we may achieve more by building off each other rather than working alone.
But the way we work together has gone through significant changes over time. Now, in our current landscape, we encounter more ambiguity and uncertainty than ever, requiring us to co-create in fast-paced and dynamic environments. We need tools that embrace the messiness of our creative process and can adapt to our ever-evolving needs.
The combined weighting of Apple and Microsoft in the S&P 500 has risen to the highest level on record »
wsj.com: Apple, Microsoft Dominate U.S. Markets After FAANG Trade Fizzles
[Transcription] The FAANG era is apparently over. The U.S. market is dominated by just two stocks now. The combined weighting of Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in the S&P 500 has risen to 13.3%, the highest level on record, while the influence of other big technology stocks has waned of late. That is according to Strategas Securities data going back to 1990.
@unusual_whales: Nvidia, $NVDA, and Microsoft, $MSFT, to bring the industrial metaverse and AI to hundreds of millions of enterprise users via Azure cloud.
Microsoft just announced another Xbox-Activision 10-year Call of Duty licensing deal»
windowscentral.com: You get Call of Duty, I get Call of Duty. Everyone gets Call of Duty
[Transcription] What you need to know:
Microsoft is trying to purchase Activision-Blizzard for a cool $69 billion.
Competition regulators across the globe are scrutinizing the deal, with Sony PlayStation as the biggest opponent.
Microsoft has announced partnerships for Call of Duty to waylay regulator concerns, including Nintendo, NVIDIA GeForce Now, and now, Ukraine-based cloud provider Boosteroid.
Sony is once again upset about the Activision-Microsoft deal.
In comments to the UK CMA, Sony claimed that Microsoft hasn't offered solutions, despite Activision CEO Bobby Kotick saying that Sony refuses to return their calls.
Microsoft once again proposed legally binding mechanisms to continue bringing Call of Duty to PlayStation — something it was obviously going to continue doing anyway, like Minecraft.
Sony also bizarrely claims that Microsoft will intentionally introduce bugs into the PlayStation versions of Activision games to undermine its business.
The data: Sony was Activision Blizzard’s largest customer in 2020
@ZhugeEX: Fun Fact. Sony was Activision Blizzard's largest customer in 2020 accounting for 17% of it sales or ~$1.37 billion. Microsoft was Activision Blizzard's 4th largest customer in 2020, behind Apple and Google, accounting for 11% of its sales or ~$890m
The new Bing is like having a research assistant, personal planner, and creative partner at your side whenever you search the web. With this set of AI-powered features, you can:
Ask your actual question. When you ask complex questions, Bing gives you detailed replies.
Get an actual answer. Bing looks at search results across the web to offer you a summarized answer.
Be creative. When you need inspiration, Bing can help you write poems, stories, or even share ideas for a project.
In the chat experience, you can also chat and ask follow-up questions such as, “can you explain that in simpler terms,” or, “give me more options” to get different and even more detailed answers in your search.
Screenshot (*color profile edited). Source: “Introducing The New Bing” (Microsoft Corporation)
#35 Feb 7, 2023
⚡️@CNBCFastMoney: $MSFT just rolled out an AI-powered Bing homepage, so @RiskReversal used Bing for the first time today ... but is he buying the stock after today's pop?
⚡️@windowscentral: Microsoft will retire one free version of Teams and replace it with another one. Here's how the transition may affect your organization.
⚡️emollick: New paper shows that ChatGPT is likely to impact academic research in big ways The AI created short proposals for research papers in finance, which were peer-reviewed. All the AI papers had “a decent chance of eventual success in the reviewing process in a good finance journal”
⚡️@PlayStation: Finding a PS5 should become easier starting this year. Thanks for your patience 💙 New “Live From PS5” spot celebrates the moment: play.st/livefromps5blog
⚡️nasdaq.com: The Top Companies in the Cloud Computing Space
[Transcription] Microsoft (MSFT) has been highly focused on cloud since Satya Nadella took over the reins, closing in on its gap with AWS. Microsoft captured 21% of the market in Q3 CY2021. In Q1 FY 2022, Microsoft Cloud generated $20.7 billion in revenue.
This is the first time when Microsoft Cloud’s quarterly revenue surpassed the $20 billion mark. During its recent Q2 FY2023 (July–June), Microsoft Cloud revenue was $27.1 billion, up 22% year-over-year.
“The next major wave of computing is being born, as the Microsoft Cloud turns the world’s most advanced AI models into a new computing platform,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft.
⚡️Tier1Alpha: A 10% intraday move for a company with a $1.7 trillion market cap is really quite awesome to contemplate. It's also remarkable that as recently as 2012, $MSFT entire market cap was ~$200B. So that move was nearly the entire market cap of $MSFT only a decade ago. Makes you think.
⚡️@PlayStation: A world of customization options at your fingertips The DualSense Edge wireless controller launches today. Tips for getting started tuning custom profiles: play.st/3wxanB2
⚡️Microsoft365: Hi Merrill, we've rolled back a network change and are monitoring the recovery across the service with some customers reporting mitigation. We’re also connecting the service to additional infrastructure to expedite the recovery process. twitter.com/messages/compo…
⚡️satyanadella: In this next phase of our partnership with @OpenAI, we will deliver the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain for customers to safely and responsibly build and run their applications on Azure.
[Transcription] Although I try not to touch too much on layoffs, some are too big in their impact to ignore. Wednesday, Microsoft announced large cuts, and Amazon commences their elimination of 18,000 roles. Today, we cover the impact on these cuts on the industry. But it’s not all gloom and doom: in the middle of layoffs, some companies are doing very well, and I bring some exclusive details about one of these startups, Linear.
“So I think at this point, the way Microsoft is really going to commercialize all of this is Azure has become the place for anybody and everybody who thinks about AI and large sale training…
Second, is we are going to make these foundational models available as platforms…Today we just made the OpenAI Azure Service available generally and then even ChatGPT will be available as an API. And, so, we are very, very excited about that. And then we will incorporate this in our own applications…
Every product at Microsoft will have some of the same AI capabilities to completely transform the product.”
#17 Jan 19, 2023
⚡️@OlafGersemann: Sting at the Microsoft party, Snoop Dogg at the Salesforce party, bands flown in from NYC, etc. etc.: Even in times of crisis, Davos Man does not let the celebration.
⚡️@Reuters (11:10 AM): Microsoft plans to cut 10,000 jobs by the end of March and take a $1.2 billion charge to earnings, as its cloud-computing customers reassess their spending and the company braces for potential recession
Previous tweet #1 (7:10 AM) Microsoft said it would cut 10,000 jobs, the latest sign that layoffs were accelerating in the U.S. technology sector as companies brace for a potential economic downturn
Previous tweet #2 (3:10 AM) Microsoft said it would cut 10,000 jobs and take a $1.2 billion charge to earnings, as its cloud-computing customers reassess their spending and the company braces for a potential recession
Previous tweet #3 (2:20 AM) Microsoft said it would eliminate 10,000 jobs and take a $1.2 billion charge to earnings, as its cloud-computing customers reassess their spending and the company braces for potential recession
Satya Nadella shared the below communication today with Microsoft employees.
We’re living through times of significant change, and as I meet with customers and partners, a few things are clear. First, as we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize their digital spend to do more with less. We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one. At the same time, the next major wave of computing is being born with advances in AI, as we’re turning the world’s most advanced models into a new computing platform.
This is the context in which we as a company must strive to deliver results on an ongoing basis, while investing in our long-term opportunity. I’m confident that Microsoft will emerge from this stronger and more competitive, but it requires us to take actions grounded in three priorities.
First, we will align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand. Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3. This represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today. It’s important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas. We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted. The senior leadership team and I are committed that as we go through this process, we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible.
Second, we will continue to invest in strategic areas for our future, meaning we are allocating both our capital and talent to areas of secular growth and long-term competitiveness for the company, while divesting in other areas. These are the kinds of hard choices we have made throughout our 47-year history to remain a consequential company in this industry that is unforgiving to anyone who doesn’t adapt to platform shifts. As such, we are taking a $1.2 billion charge in Q2 related to severance costs, changes to our hardware portfolio, and the cost of lease consolidation as we create higher density across our workspaces.
And third, we will treat our people with dignity and respect, and act transparently. These decisions are difficult, but necessary. They are especially difficult because they impact people and people’s lives – our colleagues and friends. We are committed to ensuring all those whose roles are eliminated have our full support during these transitions. U.S.-benefit-eligible employees will receive a variety of benefits, including above-market severance pay, continuing healthcare coverage for six months, continued vesting of stock awards for six months, career transition services, and 60 days’ notice prior to termination, regardless of whether such notice is legally required. Benefits for employees outside the U.S. will align with the employment laws in each country.
When I think about this moment in time, the start of 2023, it’s showtime – for our industry and for Microsoft. As a company, our success must be aligned to the world’s success. That means every one of us and every team across the company must raise the bar and perform better than the competition to deliver meaningful innovation that customers, communities, and countries can truly benefit from. If we deliver on this, we will emerge stronger and thrive long into the future; it’s as simple as that.
I want to extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to everyone who has contributed to Microsoft up to this point and to all of you who will continue to contribute as we chart our path ahead. Thank you for the focus, dedication, and resilience you demonstrate for Microsoft and our customers and partners each day.
Satya
#14 Jan 11, 2023
⚡️@Techmeme: Microsoft announces 365 Basic for $1.99 per month, replacing the 100GB OneDrive subscription, rolling out globally on January 30 with ad-free Outlook and more (@tomwarren / The Verge)
⚡️@Reuters: A group of 10 video gamers sued Microsoft over its $69 billion bid to buy ‘Call of Duty’ maker Activision Blizzard, arguing that the largest-ever acquisition in the video game industry would unlawfully hurt competition in the sector
⚡️@IGN: Microsoft president and vice chairman Brad Smith said Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is fair since Sony already has nearly five times more exclusive games and is dominating the market.
⚡️@NasdaqExchange: Microsoft founder Bill Gates led the company to its IPO at @Nasdaq on March 13, 1986 under ticker $MSFT. Since then, @Microsoft has made history as one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world. Learn more as we celebrate #Nasdaq50:
![anigbrowl 5 hours ago | next [–] Where is AntiTrust on this? I have nothing against MS, business gonna business and all that, but they already have Copilot. A single company owning so much of a very much emerging market is bad for competition under any circumstances, and MS already has a history of abusing market dominance. reply cable2600 4 hours ago | parent | next [–] They already are investigating Microsoft for the Activision purchase. It takes time but Microsoft always buys out competition. reply zanek 5 hours ago | prev | next [–] Link: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-talks-invest-10-bil... reply isbvhodnvemrwvn 2 hours ago | prev | next [–] Clippy is coming back. reply rvz 5 hours ago | prev [–] Obviously. [0] In less than 10 days of making that prediction, the first phase of that prediction is becoming true. > * OpenAI will gain further investment... Now the second phase is the inevitable monetization of ChatGPT, which forces companies completely basing their entire business on the API will soon have to make money rather than use it for free or using it and making a loss. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34201706 reply speedgoose 4 hours ago | parent [–] ChatGPT doesn’t have an open API. You may try to hack the CloudFlare bot protection to use it anyway but that’s not a good business idea. The GPT3 API is already not free and monetised.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab609dcb-6ec9-42f3-af59-37087a512cf3_1442x1802.png "anigbrowl 5 hours ago | next [–] Where is AntiTrust on this? I have nothing against MS, business gonna business and all that, but they already have Copilot. A single company owning so much of a very much emerging market is bad for competition under any circumstances, and MS already has a history of abusing market dominance. reply cable2600 4 hours ago | parent | next [–] They already are investigating Microsoft for the Activision purchase. It takes time but Microsoft always buys out competition. reply zanek 5 hours ago | prev | next [–] Link: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-talks-invest-10-bil... reply isbvhodnvemrwvn 2 hours ago | prev | next [–] Clippy is coming back. reply rvz 5 hours ago | prev [–] Obviously. [0] In less than 10 days of making that prediction, the first phase of that prediction is becoming true. > * OpenAI will gain further investment... Now the second phase is the inevitable monetization of ChatGPT, which forces companies completely basing their entire business on the API will soon have to make money rather than use it for free or using it and making a loss. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34201706 reply speedgoose 4 hours ago | parent [–] ChatGPT doesn’t have an open API. You may try to hack the CloudFlare bot protection to use it anyway but that’s not a good business idea. The GPT3 API is already not free and monetised.")
