Why Microsoft is asking Google and Amazon for 'help' despite spending $190 billion on AI
Microsoft is reportedly seeking cloud infrastructure capacity from competitors Amazon and Google due to an internal shortage of servers for AI workloads. Despite record capital expenditure, the company's demand for computing power is currently outpacing its ability to build data centers.
Why it matters
This highlights the extreme supply-chain pressures and infrastructure bottlenecks facing major tech companies in the race to scale artificial intelligence.
Microsoft sells computing capacity to the world. This year, it is buying some. The company is spending a record $190 billion to build AI infrastructure, and it is still short enough on servers that it has started evaluating Amazon and Google—its two biggest cloud rivals—as suppliers.According to a Business Insider report, the company is now evaluating Amazon and Google as sources of additional cloud capacity, with one person familiar with the discussions putting it plainly: "We are shopping for capacity everywhere." Amazon has already stepped in once, bailing Microsoft out following a series of GitHub outages this year. Microsoft also explored leasing infrastructure from Oracle but walked away over security and compliance concerns.
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