Microsoft is deepening its long-term partnership with AMD by bringing the chipmaker’s latest AI, CPU, and networking technologies to Azure, expanding the cloud platform’s infrastructure for AI training, inference, and enterprise workloads.
The announcement includes Microsoft’s planned deployment of the AMD Helios Rackscale Solution, new Azure virtual machine (VM) series powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC “Venice” processors, and broader adoption of AMD Pensando networking technologies.
Microsoft adopts AMD Helios for AI inference on Azure
At the center of the expanded collaboration is Advanced Micro Devices’s Helios, a next-generation rackscale AI platform designed for large-scale artificial intelligence workloads.
Microsoft plans to deploy Helios across Azure to support frontier AI model inference, Azure AI services, and enterprise AI applications running on the cloud platform.
According to AMD, Helios combines several of its latest technologies into a unified AI platform, including AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs, AMD EPYC “Venice” CPUs, AMD Pensando networking, and ROCm AI software.
The company said the platform is designed to accelerate both AI training and inference while providing customers with an open alternative for deploying large-scale AI workloads. AMD expects to begin shipping Helios systems to customers, including Microsoft, during the second half of 2026.
Azure adds new AMD EPYC-powered virtual machines
Microsoft is also expanding Azure’s CPU offerings with two new virtual machine series powered by 6th Gen Advanced Micro Devices EPYC “Venice” processors.
The new instances include Azure HDv2, designed for agentic AI workloads and data pipelines, and Azure HXv2, which is optimized for semiconductor design and engineering applications.
According to Microsoft, these additions further expand Azure’s AMD-powered infrastructure for AI, high-performance computing, and enterprise workloads.
AMD Pensando powers Azure networking expansion
Beyond compute, the partnership also extends to Azure’s networking infrastructure.
Microsoft is expanding its deployment of Advanced Micro Devices Pensando Data Processing Units (DPUs) to support Azure networking services while integrating AMD technologies with Azure Boost, Microsoft’s infrastructure acceleration platform.
According to the companies, the integration is intended to improve cloud networking performance, enhance infrastructure efficiency, and accelerate connection processing at hyperscale.
Supporting growing AI demand
The expanded partnership comes as cloud providers continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure to meet increasing demand for generative AI, large language models, and enterprise AI services.
AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su said the latest deployments reflect years of collaboration between the two companies and represent another step in scaling AMD-powered AI infrastructure on Azure.
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella added that customers increasingly require infrastructure optimized for a wide range of AI workloads, from model training and inference to reinforcement learning and data preparation.
Through the expanded partnership, Microsoft aims to offer Azure customers more flexibility and hardware choices as AI adoption continues to accelerate.
