Microsoft expands Azure AI and HPC infrastructure with AMD

2026-07-20 · Source: The Official Microsoft Blog · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing & IT Infrastructure, Robotics & Autonomous Systems · Depth: Advanced, short

Summary

Microsoft is expanding its Azure AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure by integrating AMD's latest Helios AI platform and next-generation EPYC datacenter processors. This collaboration introduces three new Azure offerings: HDv2 VMs, HXv2 VMs, and ND MI455X v7 VMs. HDv2 VMs, co-designed with AMD, feature nearly 500 physical 6th Gen AMD EPYC CPU cores, 4 terabytes of RAM, 32 terabytes of local NVMe storage, and 400 Gb Azure Boost networking, targeting demanding CPU workloads like data preparation and agent coordination. HXv2 VMs, building on the 2023 HX series, offer 176 AMD 6th Gen EPYC CPU cores with over 5 GHz clock frequency, 50% more addressable cache, and up to 4 terabytes of RAM, optimized for silicon design and technical computing with 800 Gb InfiniBand. The ND MI455X v7 VMs, powered by the AMD Helios rackscale solution, are designed for production-scale AI inference, reasoning, and agentic workloads.

Key takeaway

For AI Architects evaluating cloud infrastructure for diverse workloads, Microsoft's expanded Azure offerings with AMD provide specialized options. You should consider HDv2 VMs for CPU-intensive data processing, HXv2 VMs for electronic design automation and HPC simulations, and ND MI455X v7 VMs for large-scale AI inference. This allows you to optimize for performance, cost, and energy efficiency by selecting the right compute for each unique AI workflow.

Key insights

Microsoft Azure expands its AI/HPC infrastructure with AMD's latest hardware, offering specialized VMs for diverse AI workloads.

Principles

• AI infrastructure needs specialization.
• Heterogeneous platforms optimize performance.
• Co-design improves workload efficiency.

In practice

• Use HDv2 for large-scale data prep.
• Deploy HXv2 for chip design EDA.
• Utilize ND MI455X v7 for AI inference.

Topics

• Azure AI
• High-Performance Computing
• AMD EPYC Processors
• AI Inference
• Electronic Design Automation
• Virtual Machines

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Director of AI/ML, AI Architect, MLOps Engineer, AI Hardware Engineer

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by The Official Microsoft Blog.