Microsoft is renting GPU power from Oracle to push its AI work forward
Microsoft and Oracle have entered into a new multi-year partnership, leaving not only cloud and AI companies facing a greater threat, but also search challenges.
The deal will see Microsoft use its own Azure AI infrastructure along with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) AI to make its search engine even more powerful, and Google may want to start worrying.
Redmond plans to use the two AI infrastructure services to derive AI models that will power conversational searches in Microsoft Bing.
Bing’s interest in AI infrastructure is growing
While the deal between two rival companies may seem counterintuitive, Microsoft has nothing to worry about. The 23% share of the cloud market in the third quarter of 2023 (via Synergy) is leaps and bounds ahead of Oracle, which isn’t even in the top five. However, Synergy noted that Oracle saw healthy year-over-year growth rates, and the additional support from Microsoft could see the company make strides among the second-tier cloud providers.
Microsoft’s global head of marketing for Search & AI, Divya Kumar, said: “Our partnership with Oracle and the use of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure along with our Microsoft Azure AI infrastructure will increase access to customers and improve the speed of many of our search results. ”
Karan Batta, SVP for OCI, added: “By furthering our partnership with Microsoft, we can help bring new experiences to more people around the world.”
The joint effort uses Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, which enables interoperability between competing companies’ cloud infrastructures.
It’s clear that Microsoft has outgrown its own resources, as it appears to be divvying up some for itself and some for its customers, amid what Oracle calls an “explosive growth of AI services.”
It is unclear how much customization Microsoft will provide to Oracle and how long the collaboration will last. Ny Breaking reached out to both companies for confirmation, but we received no immediate response.