Dallas might soon have the world’s biggest artificial intelligence supercomputer — and it's no shock that Microsoft is interested in being involved.
Microsoft announced on Monday that it intends to put $1.5 billion into G42, a top technology holding company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which is constructing an artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer in Dallas.
The AI supercomputer is known as the Condor Galaxy 3 (CG3), and it is a joint project by G42 and Cerebras Systems Inc., an AI company situated in Sunnyvale, California. The CG3, a new addition to their AI supercomputers, can deliver eight exaflops of AI supercomputing performance, which is double the previous amount.
To put that into perspective, an Invidia blog explains an exaflop (a measure of performance for a supercomputer) as the equivalent of a billion people holding a billion calculators and choosing to press the equal sign at the same time.
The supercomputer is predicted to be ready at some point in the second quarter of 2024, according to a news release.
As part of Microsoft’s strategic investment, the tech giant will acquire a minority stake in G42 and join its board of directors. Through its collaboration with G42, Microsoft suggests that the two companies can innovate together and provide advanced AI solutions for various industries and markets in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.
“With the Microsoft Cloud's wide range and its distinctive AI abilities, the deal significantly moves forward G42’s approach to offering generative AI and next-generation infrastructure and services for a variety of customers in finance, healthcare, energy, government, and education,” said Microsoft.
The deal will also necessitate G42 to move its data platform and other essential technology infrastructure to Microsoft Azure. By switching to Azure, G42 will benefit from Microsoft’s top performance, expandability, and security capabilities.
“Switching to Azure will also benefit AI product development, allowing G42 to create services that can scale up to deliver faster results for its customers globally,” stated Microsoft.
Despite Dallas being the location of a developing AI supercomputer, U.S. officials have expressed worries regarding G42’s connections to China. As per reports by The New York Times, G42 is overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the Emirates’ national security adviser and the younger brother of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the country’s ruler.
Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft who will be on G42’s board, says he fully understands the national security concerns regarding G42. However, according to the new partnership, G42 has supposedly agreed to remove China from its operations, among other measures.
