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Microsoft and NVIDIA are joining forces to drive groundbreaking advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). Their long-standing collaboration has been pivotal in the AI revolution, delivering industry-leading supercomputing performance in the cloud and supporting innovative solutions like ChatGPT through the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Copilot.
New Announcements Enhance Collaboration
Today, Microsoft and NVIDIA announced several exciting developments that further strengthen their collaboration. Key highlights include the integration of the latest NVIDIA Blackwell platform with Azure AI services, the incorporation of NVIDIA NIM microservices into Azure AI Foundry, and initiatives to empower developers, startups, and organizations like NBA, BMW, Dentsu, Harvey, and OriGen to accelerate their innovations.
Azure AI Foundry Expands Offerings
With the rise of agentic AI, Microsoft and NVIDIA are thrilled to introduce new offerings in Azure AI Foundry. The platform now features NVIDIA NIM microservices, providing optimized containers for over two dozen popular foundation models. This enhancement allows developers to deploy generative AI applications quickly and accelerates inferencing workloads for models available on Azure.
Epic, a leading electronic health record company, plans to leverage these integrations to improve AI applications for better healthcare outcomes. Drew McCombs, VP of Cloud and Analytics at Epic, emphasized that the deployment of open-source generative AI models will enhance patient care and operational efficiency.
The launch of NVIDIA NIM microservices in Azure AI Foundry offers a secure and efficient way for Epic to deploy open-source generative AI models that improve patient care, boost clinician and operational efficiency, and uncover new insights to drive medical innovation. In collaboration with UW Health and UC San Diego Health, we’re also researching methods to evaluate clinical summaries with these advanced models. Together, we’re using the latest AI technology in ways that truly improve the lives of clinicians and patients.
Drew McCombs, VP Cloud and Analytics, Epic
Optimizing Inference Performance
Microsoft is also collaborating with NVIDIA to optimize inference performance for popular open-source language models available on Azure AI Foundry. The latest addition includes performance optimization for Meta Llama models using TensorRT-LLM. This optimization allows developers to utilize enhanced Llama models from the model catalog without additional steps.
At Synopsys, we rely on cutting-edge AI models to drive innovation, and the optimized Meta Llama models on Azure AI Foundry have delivered exceptional performance. We’ve seen substantial improvements in both throughput and latency, allowing us to accelerate our workloads while optimizing costs. These advancements make Azure AI Foundry an ideal platform for scaling AI applications efficiently.”
Arun Venkatachar, VP Engineering, Synopsys Central Engineering
Expanding Azure AI Infrastructure
As part of its commitment to advancing AI capabilities, Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure ND GB200 V6 virtual machine (VM) series powered by NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and Quantum InfiniBand networking. This addition underscores Microsoft's dedication to optimizing infrastructure for complex AI tasks such as planning and reasoning.
As we push the boundaries of AI, our partnership with Azure and the introduction of the NVIDIA Blackwell platform represent a significant leap forward. The NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, with its unparalleled performance and connectivity, tackles the most complex AI workloads, enabling businesses to innovate faster and more securely. By integrating this technology with Azure’s secure infrastructure, we are unlocking the potential of reasoning AI.
Ian Buck, Vice President of Hyperscale and HPC, NVIDIA
Launching New GPU-Based VMs
Microsoft is set to launch NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPU-based VMs in 2025, promising exceptional performance for agentic and generative AI workloads. These VMs will enhance Azure's ability to efficiently scale large GPU clusters for advanced model training.
Empowering Businesses with Azure AI Infrastructure
Companies like Meter are already utilizing Azure AI Infrastructure to train large foundation models aimed at automating networking processes. The scalability of Azure will significantly enhance Meter’s AI training capabilities.
Black Forest Labs, a generative AI startup, is expanding its partnership with Microsoft Azure to develop state-of-the-art deep learning models for media. The adoption of new ND GB200 v6 VMs will accelerate their innovation in generative AI.
We are expanding our partnership with Microsoft Azure to combine BFL’s unique research expertise in generative AI with Azure’s powerful infrastructure. This collaboration enables us to build and deliver the best possible image and video models faster and at greater scale, providing our customers with state-of-the-art visual AI capabilities for media production, advertising, product design, content creation and beyond.
Robin Rombach, CEO, Black Forest Labs
Creating New Possibilities Across Industries
Microsoft and NVIDIA have launched preconfigured NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim virtual desktop workstations on the Azure marketplace. These offerings provide developers with tools to create digital twin and robotics simulation applications for the era of physical AI. Various ecosystem partners are adopting these capabilities to drive digitalization in manufacturing.
Innovative solutions from AI startups on Azure include Opaque Systems' confidential computing solutions, Faros AI's software engineering insights, Bria AI's visual generative platform, Pangaea Data's patient outcome enhancements, and Basecamp Research's biodiversity discovery initiatives.
The collaboration between Microsoft and NVIDIA continues to shape the future of artificial intelligence. With their combined efforts in optimizing infrastructure and expanding offerings in Azure AI Foundry, they are empowering businesses across industries to innovate faster and more efficiently than ever before.