- AMD announced a major expansion of its partnership with Microsoft, with the tech giant deploying AMD’s next-generation Helios rack AI system on Azure for frontier AI inference.
- Shipments of the Helios platform, which combines AMD’s MI455X GPUs and EPYC “Venice” processors, will begin in the second half of 2026.
- The deal broadens AMD’s footprint across Azure with three new offerings spanning AI data processing, chip design, and production-scale inference, as hyperscalers seek to reduce reliance on a single chip supplier.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) on Monday announced an expanded strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), under which the tech giant will deploy AMD’s next-generation Helios rack AI system platform on Azure to power frontier AI model inference. The expanded partnership also includes new Azure virtual machines powered by AMD’s latest EPYC processors and a broader rollout of AMD networking technology across Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure.
AMD shares were up more than 5% in Monday’s opening trade, while Microsoft shares were down about 0.5%. AMD also announced that Helios shipments, including to Microsoft, will begin in the second half of 2026.
The platform combines the company’s next-generation Instinct MI455X GPUs, sixth-generation EPYC “Venice” processors, Pensando networking technology and ROCm software in a single AI system designed for large-scale training and inference workloads. “AMD and Microsoft have spent years building high-performance infrastructure together, and today we’re extending that partnership across the full stack of AMD AI solutions on Azure,” CEO Lisa Su said.
Su added that Microsoft’s deployment marks “an important milestone” as AMD scales its next-generation AI infrastructure. Microsoft said the expanded partnership will bring AMD technology to three new Azure offerings spanning AI data processing, chip design and production-scale AI inference.
This broadens AMD‘s presence beyond AI accelerators, with the company supplying compute infrastructure for a wider range of cloud workloads. Helios is AMD‘s answer to NVIDIA‘s rack-scale AI systems, which bundle GPUs, CPUs, networking, and software into integrated platforms for training and inference.
Microsoft‘s adoption makes it the first publicly announced customer for the new platform, giving AMD a major win as hyperscalers look to diversify and reduce their dependence on a single chip supplier. According to a report by The Information, Meta Platforms Inc. (META) signed a multi-billion-dollar deal in February this year to rent Google’s AI chips.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is expanding the use of its custom AI chips, Trainium and Inferentia, while Microsoft and Meta are continuing to develop their in-house AI accelerators. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around AMD trended in ‘bullish’ territory at the time of writing.
AMD stock is up 144% year-to-date, while MSFT stock is down 19%.
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