Microsoft's new AI chip, named Braga, is late and may not work as well as planned, says a report from The Information. It's set to come out six months late, now launching next year. When it does start in 2026, it may not meet the mark set by Nvidia's top Blackwell chips from last year.
How the Delay Affects Microsoft's Plan
This hold-up hits Microsoft hard. They wanted to use their own chips in data hubs this year to rely less on Nvidia. Sources inside tell The Information that the delay came from:
- Changes in design they didn't see coming
- Not enough staff
- Lots of staff leaving
Growing Gap with Nvidia
Nvidia still leads, and its CEO, Jensen Huang, doubts other chip plans, asking why make a chip if it's no better than what you can buy. The delay and lower expected performance of Microsoft's Braga chip seem to prove him right.
Past and Future of Microsoft's Chips
Microsoft has tried to make chips before. They showed off the Maia 100 chip in 2023, but it's mainly for tests, not running big services, as it was made for image work before tools like ChatGPT came up.
Plans for their chips included:
- Braga in 2025
- Braga-R in 2026
- Clea in 2027
Now, Braga's delay throws doubt on the whole schedule. All these chips are meant for inference tasks, while a plan for a training chip was dropped in early 2024.
Inside Problems and Outlook Ahead
The report points out that changes asked for by OpenAI made the Braga chip fail in tests, pushing the project back months. The team still had to meet the old deadline, causing much stress and many leaving the team.
With these issues, Microsoft might not match Nvidia's chips until the Clea version in 2027. This timeline doesn't consider any new advances Nvidia might make by then.
