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Microsoft Azure chips are processors and accelerators designed for use in Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure—not a retail range of PC chips. Maia is Microsoft’s AI accelerator family, while Cobalt is its general-purpose cloud CPU family. Azure’s custom silicon also includes hardware for security and data processing.
What are Microsoft Azure chips?
The term refers to custom silicon Microsoft uses in Azure datacenters to support cloud computing. The chips are designed to work within a larger infrastructure stack, rather than as standalone products for consumers. Microsoft’s Azure silicon overview describes the approach as designing silicon alongside software, servers, networking, storage, power, cooling and datacenter operations.
Two prominent processor families are Maia, for AI acceleration, and Cobalt, for general-purpose computing. Azure also identifies custom silicon for security and data processing.
Maia and Cobalt: how do they differ?
| Family | Designed for | Examples and customer access |
|---|---|---|
| Maia | AI workloads, including training and inference; Maia 200 is specifically an inference accelerator. | Used within Azure infrastructure. The cited Microsoft sources do not describe it as a separately purchasable consumer chip. |
| Cobalt | General-purpose cloud computing, particularly scale-out and cloud-native workloads. | Customers can use Cobalt 100 through Azure virtual machines based on the processor. |
The distinction is practical: an AI accelerator is built to speed particular AI computations, while a CPU runs a broad range of operating-system and application tasks. They serve different roles and should not be treated as interchangeable.
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What is Azure Maia?
Maia is Microsoft’s family of AI accelerators for cloud workloads. Microsoft announced Maia 100 in November 2023 for AI training and inference, including generative AI. Microsoft said that generation used 5nm process technology and contained 105 billion transistors; those figures apply to Maia 100, not later generations. See Microsoft’s Maia 100 announcement.
Maia 200
On January 26, 2026, Microsoft introduced Maia 200 as an inference accelerator. Microsoft says it is built on TSMC’s 3nm process and has 216GB of HBM3e memory with bandwidth of 7 TB/s, plus 272MB of on-chip SRAM. These are Microsoft-published Maia 200 specifications, not independent test results. In its January 26, 2026 announcement, Microsoft also claimed Maia 200 delivers “30% better performance per dollar than the latest generation hardware in our fleet today.” That is a company comparison against its fleet at the time, not an independently verified benchmark.
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What is Azure Cobalt?
Cobalt is Microsoft’s Arm-based CPU family for general-purpose computing in Microsoft Cloud. Microsoft announced Cobalt 100 in 2023. Microsoft Learn says Cobalt 100 is based on Arm’s Neoverse N2 design and operates at 3.4 GHz. Azure customers access it through Cobalt processor-based virtual machines, rather than by purchasing the CPU itself.
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What other custom chips does Azure use?
Microsoft’s Azure silicon overview also identifies two other custom-silicon categories:
- Azure Integrated HSM: a hardware security module intended to strengthen security and cryptographic trust.
- Azure Boost DPU: a data processing unit intended to improve efficiency for data-centric workloads.
These broaden the meaning of “Azure chips” beyond Maia and Cobalt: not every custom chip is a CPU or AI accelerator.
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Can you buy or use an Azure chip?
The cited Microsoft materials describe Maia and Cobalt as hardware in Azure infrastructure, not components sold for installation in a personal computer. For Cobalt, the documented customer route is to choose an Azure virtual machine that uses a Cobalt processor. More generally, customers access the underlying silicon through Azure services where it is available, rather than selecting or handling a physical chip. The sources cited here do not establish regional availability or rollout status for every generation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why does Microsoft design chips as part of a system?
A processor’s real-world performance and efficiency depend on more than its silicon die. Servers, networking, software, power delivery, cooling, storage and datacenter operations all affect how workloads run. Microsoft presents Maia and Cobalt as parts of a purpose-built infrastructure stack, so a chip specification alone does not establish how a particular Azure workload will perform.
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