Microsoft and AMD unveil Helios for Azure inference
ryanshrout · x · 2026-07-20
Microsoft and AMD have officially announced Helios, a rackscale platform built on Instinct MI455X GPUs, 6th Gen EPYC "Venice" CPUs, Pensando networking, and ROCm.
Key points:
- Shipments begin in 2H 2026.
- It is positioned for frontier model inference, not training.
- Microsoft will use it for Azure AI services and customer-facing serving workloads.
- Azure ND MI455X v7 VMs are built on Helios for production-scale inference across reasoning, search, and agentic workloads.
- Microsoft also outlined new EPYC Venice VM series: HDv2 for AI data systems and agentic pipelines, and HXv2 for silicon design and technical computing.
The image attached says training will stay on NVIDIA-based systems for now, while Helios becomes Azure’s serving layer.
Related event: AMD and Microsoft Expand Azure AI Partnership with Helios(3 posts)→
More from Companies & People
- IIT Madras Launches EdTech Tulna Standards for AI-Powered Learning Products — ravi_iitm · 2026-09-11
- Warp's six non-engineering teams all run on Linear and Claude Code — mon__lim · 2026-09-11
- Anthropic Insiders: Not Everyone at the Lab Believes in High p(doom) — anpaure · 2026-09-11
- Lumara AI Film Festival Comes to NYC Oct 26, Top AI Filmmakers to Compete — 0xAllen_ · 2026-09-11
- X drama: Anthropic researchers accused of spying on academic customers and racing them to results — basedjensen · 2026-09-11
- Investor argues Palantir-Nvidia partnership should slash Anthropic's IPO valuation — pdamodaran · 2026-09-11