Microsoft aspires to provide a select few standout startups with a complimentary opportunity to access high-performance computing resources from Azure cloud to develop artificial intelligence models.
The company has announced an update to its Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program to include the option of AI infrastructure from Azure at no cost for virtual machine clusters and advanced GPU units powered by Nvidia for training and running generative models, including large language models like ChatGPT.
Startup accelerator Y Combinator and its community of startup founders will have the opportunity to access the preview pools.
Microsoft described Y Combinator as the perfect first partner, given its strong track record of collaborating with early-stage startups.
The company revealed: “We collaborate closely with Y Combinator to prioritize requests submitted by the current pool as part of our initial assessment, focusing on tasks like training and tuning use cases that enhance innovation”.
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It is worth noting that this is not the first time Microsoft has sought to garner support from startups under the Y Combinator umbrella.
In 2015, the company granted $500,000 in Azure credits to Y Combinator startups, in an initiative seen at that time as an effort to avoid involvement of these startups in fierce competition.
Microsoft acknowledges that the virtual machine clusters and GPU units used in training and inference in artificial intelligence follow the same approach that serves self-interests.
Microsoft states: “We see Azure cloud as a priority in building AI solutions and prioritize those solutions that rely on Azure”.
The company added: “This offering targets startups that are leveraging Azure, and is part of our vision to make Azure the preferred cloud for building AI solutions”.
Microsoft collaborates with its venture capital subsidiary, M12, and its investment fund and portfolio M12 to expand access to the pools.
In the future, Microsoft plans to forge additional partnerships with startup accelerators to reduce barriers to training and running AI models for any innovative startup.
Microsoft’s approach is to meet the diverse needs of the startup community by providing opportunities for early-stage startups to utilize credits in training and tuning AI models.
Startups will not be able to run their AI models through the pools for an indefinite period for free, but rather will have a limited opportunity to test their operations and experiments, not to run them.
