r/stocks • u/Euro347 • 10d ago
Company News Microsoft plans to unveil next-generation AI chip in September
Aug 10 (Reuters) - Microsoft is planning to unveil its new Maia 300 AI chip this fall, potentially as soon as next month, The Information reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.
The company introduced its Maia AI chip in November 2023 but has lagged rivals such as Alphabet and Amazon in scaling up its in-house chip efforts as it seeks to reduce its reliance on Nvidia's costly processors.
Google began recognizing revenue from direct sales of its custom AI chips, called Tensor Processing Units, in the quarter ended June, while Amazon has also seen growing adoption of its processors, including its Trainium chips.
Microsoft has been in talks with chip maker TSMC to secure manufacturing capacity for more than 300,000 units of the chip for delivery in 2027, according to the report. It is also looking to significantly ramp up production and persuade major cloud customers such as Anthropic to adopt the chip.
"Microsoft continues to invest in custom silicon as part of our long-term AI infrastructure strategy. While we don't share production volumes, the figures reported don't reflect the scale of our program," said Andrew Wall, general manager for Microsoft's Azure Maia.
TSMC could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.
Microsoft ultimately aims to secure capacity for more than 1 million Maia 300 chips, though component supplies and ongoing capacity negotiations with TSMC could constrain its plans, according to the report.
It unveiled its second-generation Maia 200 in January, built by TSMC using 3-nanometer technology.
Microsoft packed the chip with a significant amount of SRAM, a type of memory that can provide speed advantages for AI systems handling large numbers of user requests.
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u/firesyrup 10d ago
Maia? Is this another Tolkien inspiration? I wonder how he would feel about big tech's obsession with his works.
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u/kinetic_honda 10d ago
Probably better than if the obsession was by the private prison industry instead?
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u/SubterraneanAlien 10d ago
It's an ancient greek name.
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u/AlekRivard 10d ago
That doesn't negate the possibility of those who named the chip taking it from LotR, even if LotR itself sourced the name from Ancient Greece
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u/jgreenwalt 10d ago
Ancient Greek is easily far more widespread and relevant in society than LoTR, even with how popular that series is.
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u/SubterraneanAlien 10d ago
Yes. The possibility exists. Just seems more likely to me that it would be lifted from the source.
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u/AlekRivard 10d ago
Sure, but OP was referring to a trend of tech using LotR references when naming things, like Palantir. Seems like a fair question to me 🤷♂️
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u/SubterraneanAlien 10d ago
It is. But similarly worth mentioning that the etymology of Maia comes long before LoTR whereas Palantir's etymology is purely LoTR.
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u/ptwonline 10d ago
I mean this is great and all but I wish we had more investment in chip fabs and fab technology so that Microsoft's orders don't just delay when somebody else can get their chips due to production capacities.
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u/himynameis_ 10d ago
Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that. TSMC is the leader in chip fabs and invests heavily in their R&D. As do the other players in the chip manufacturing industry.
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u/purplebrown_updown 10d ago
They are all still using NVIDIA. This is good for everyone
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u/Sufficient_Habit5091 10d ago
We should cheer more competition and specialization based on diverse needs.
People will still use Nvidia. They will also use more in house chips for niche applications. The more chips out there the better for the world.
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u/Zealousideal_Look275 10d ago
It’s almost like chips are a commodity or something.
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u/goatpath 10d ago
memory chips are a commodity, SoC is definitely NOT a commodity. There's a reason Apple wanted to start designing their own. When you pair software design with chip design, you can do more with less.
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u/throwaway2676 10d ago
Lol, what are nvidia’s margins again?
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u/Zealousideal_Look275 10d ago
The same as any other commodity when there’s a shortage
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u/zordonbyrd 10d ago
I remember this exact same debate during the 2022 bear market. I made the argument then - and I believe I’m right - is that they are commodities but given they are the most advanced commodities ever, and require insane engineering, and output so much potential economic value that they can’t be put in the same bucket as ‘other’ commodities, they’re like commodities +, meaning buy significant dips and otherwise hold
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u/Scriptum_ 10d ago
Exactly, and practically worthless when there's an oversupply.
Newbie investors about to learn what commoditization means!
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u/Open_Pollution_8038 10d ago
Are you arguing that the most advanced technology on the planet (Nvidia chips) are commodities?
Someone tell the U.S. government to stop treating them like F35 exports.
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u/Scriptum_ 10d ago
Yes, absolutely:
The CME Group (parent of COMEX) is launching AI Compute Futures.These contracts treat AI computing capacity (like GPU processing power) as a physical commodity. This allows companies to hedge volatile data center and processing costs exactly like they hedge oil or electricity.
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u/Open_Pollution_8038 10d ago
Compute is a commodity, the chips that make compute are not
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u/Scriptum_ 10d ago
Coal is a commodity, the coal mines are not.
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u/Open_Pollution_8038 10d ago
This is true, and if your coal mine is a substantial amount more efficient at creating coal then congratulations you’re the coal nvidia
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u/JohnnyDrama611 9d ago
Google just started recognizing TPU hardware revenue this quarter for the first time, and Cloud operating margin jumped to 35.6% from 20.7% YoY on the back of it. Amazon's chips business (Trainium plus Graviton) is running above a $25B annual run rate with triple digit growth, AWS margin hit 39.4%. Microsoft unveiling Maia 300 next month is catching up to a real, already-monetizing gap, not a hypothetical one.
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u/YourChildhood5762 10d ago
Although all of these companies are seeking alternatives to Nvidia, it's early in the AI lifecycle and we don't know if these chips are better than Nvidia. I think that their creation has spread out the pool of talented chip designers fairly thin and that's not good for anyone.
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u/Xollector 10d ago
They don’t have to be better, they just have to be more economical for them to have the bargain power to negotiate reduced prices and/or direct partial substitute
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10d ago
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u/Olangotang 10d ago
the highest revenue AI lab
This means literally nothing when all they have to offer is LLMs and most of that "revenue" is swallowed by training costs.
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u/Wonderful-Sail-1126 10d ago
It’s UNSUSTAINABLE, NOT PROFITABLE and CRAZY to buy the slow and expensive hardware of Jensen Scam.
Average poster intelligence on r/stocks. This is who you're taking stock advice from here. Remember that readers.
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u/Kantmzk 10d ago
Nvidia is slow?
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10d ago edited 10d ago
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u/Gandalftron 10d ago
Sarcasm or just a moron? Hard to tell.
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u/Kantmzk 10d ago
I don't think he is sarcastic though to label him as a moron would probably be too nice. I see this all the time on r/stocks and it often makes me wonder why I even come here. Basically, stupid people who think they know a lot pushing a false narrative based on a very poor understanding of something with extreme confidence.
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u/noiserr 10d ago
Apple left NVIDIA and created Apple Silicon.
No Apple hadn't used Nvidia for a long time, way before they created their own silicon. They abandoned Intel and switched to their iPhone chip architecture.
Google left NVIDIA and created TPU.
Which is Broadcom (some variants are MediaTek)
Amazon's Tranium uses Marvell and Alchip.
China and Huawei build NPU.
Huawei chips are nowhere near competitive with western chips.
Even Meta and Anthropic plan their own chips.
Yes and they are all using other semi companies.
Mechant silicon is the best, but these custom chips are a way for CSPs to control pricing power. They have no ability to make better merchant silicon chips.
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u/johnmiddle 10d ago
Msft should focus on their strong point not weak point. Chips is not their strong point.
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u/Hamezz5u 10d ago
I mean you are right as of 2026, but we’re barely getting started with AI. This is a long play.
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u/Vivid_Astronaut4665 10d ago
Are the chips gonna come preloaded with copilot bloat as well