Microsoft and AMD Expand Strategic Partnership to Deploy Helios Rackscale Solution on Azure Cloud Infrastructure

Microsoft and AMD have expanded their strategic partnership to integrate AMD’s Helios rackscale solution into the Azure cloud platform. The administration announced that the new system will power frontier model AI inference for Microsoft, its AI customers, and Azure AI services. Shipping for Helios is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026. The collaboration introduces several new computing instances powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC "Venice" processors. These include Azure HDv2 virtual machines for agentic AI and data pipelines, and Azure HXv2 virtual machines for semiconductor design. The partnership also integrates AMD Pensando networking and ROCm software to improve performance and efficiency at cloud scale. Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, stated that the collaboration provides customers with the performance and choice needed to build next-generation AI applications. Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD, noted that the deployment marks an important milestone in delivering leadership compute solutions to Azure customers.

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