Microsoft unveils MAIA 300 chip for multi-gigawatt inference

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the MAIA 300 chip, described as the company's biggest bet on custom silicon to date. The chip claims to deliver 40% more tokens per watt than leading GPU-based hardware. Microsoft plans to scale the MAIA family to multi-gigawatt deployments starting next year, making it the primary inference system for its own products and services. The previous generation, MAIA 200, is already deployed at a smaller scale. Following the announcement, Microsoft's stock price rose, pushing its market capitalization back above 4,000 billion dollars. Conversely, major chipmakers including Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD saw their stocks decline slightly in response to the new competition. This development highlights the intensifying race in AI infrastructure hardware, where hyperscalers are increasingly developing in-house silicon to reduce dependency on external suppliers. Investors note that the key constraint for long-term market margins will likely be physical factors like power distribution and data moats, as silicon chip companies move up the stack while application companies move down.