Microsoft and OpenAI Are Making The World’s Largest AI Supercomputer Called STARGATE

 Microsoft & OpenAI Reportedly Building AI Supercomputer For $100 Billion  Tech giant Microsoft and artificial intelligence firm OpenAI are reportedly working together to build an artificial intelligence supercomputer called “Stargate” that could cost as much as $100 billion.

Microsoft and OpenAI are working together on building an artificial intelligence supercomputer called “Stargate” that could cost as much as $100 billion, according to a report by The Information on Friday.

This AI supercomputer is called Stargate and it is going to cost 100 times more than the most powerful supercomputers at the moment, as per The Information’s report. The two tech companies will deploy the powerful computer over the next 6 years and it is expected to be operational by 2028.

The report says that Stargate will be the biggest in a series of supercomputers that Microsoft and OpenAI plan to build over the next six years. The supercomputer plan is currently in the middle of the third phase with Stargate being part of the fifth and final phase. A significant part of the cost for the upcoming phases will come from acquiring AI chips, according to the report.

There is still a bit of a bottleneck in the AI development process — the shortage of graphics processing units or GPUs, which are used to crunch data for AI models. The generative AI boom caused the demand for these chips to skyrocket. On top of that, one manufacturer, Nvidia, almost has a monopoly on the market because it produces some of the most capable chips for AI. And it is struggling to deliver orders with ever-increasing demand. And its chips are only getting more expensive.

The ambitious project is divided into different phases and Stargate is expected to be a phase 5 system. The idea of Stargate is still in its early planning stages, but the companies believe that it would require nuclear power to operate due to the immense power requirement of this project. Such a project would require gigawatts of power which cannot be provided through conventional methods.

Specifics regarding the onboard equipment and hardware configuration, as well as the deployment location for Stargate, have yet to be finalized. Additionally, there’s speculation that Stargate may encompass multiple data centers situated at a single location, rather than a singular facility. Therefore, it remains premature to delve into the details of the project at this stage.

Nonetheless, it’s imperative to recognize the growing prevalence of such data centers moving forward. This segment is poised to play a pivotal role in the advancement of AI technologies, with Nvidia’s CEO himself projecting potential market expansion to $2 trillion over the next five years.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly looking to secure $7 trillion to fund his AI ambitions and such a figure no longer seems far-fetched with such overreaching goals.

But now, a host of technology companies including Intel, Qualcomm, Google Cloud, Arm and Samsung have come together to create the “United Acceleration Foundation,” an open standard accelerator programming model that aims to challenge Nvidia’s software and hardware dominance in AI.