What is Maia 300?
Microsoft announced Maia 300, its third-generation in-house AI chip. The company positions it as the "primary AI inference system" for its products and services, meaning Microsoft wants to generate more of its cloud AI responses on its own silicon.
Why it matters
According to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud group, Maia 300 is expected to deliver 40 percent more tokens per megawatt compared to leading GPU-based systems. That translates to more AI work for the same energy. The chip is also designed to handle the latest reasoning models and agentic tasks better.
When it arrives
Maia 300 will start being rolled out to production in 2027. Microsoft says the chip was designed with efficiency in mind. The move is part of the company's effort to reduce its reliance on Nvidia GPUs for AI infrastructure.
