Microsoft has reportedly signed a deal with former Ethereum miner Core Weave to use its cloud computing infrastructure to power its artificial intelligence (AI) services.
According to a CNBC report on June 1, citing "people familiar with the matter," Microsoft could spend billions over the years on the CoreWeave deal. A CNBC source said the deal was signed in early 2023. In the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology In the past 12 months, Microsoft has launched several artificial intelligence services. A case in point is OpenAI's GPT-4 integration with its web browsers Bing and Microsoft Edge, where the company recently removed the waitlist.
OpenAI also leverages Microsoft's own cloud computing infrastructure, Azure, to handle its massive computing needs. CoreWeave started in 2017 as an Ethereum miner, utilizing graphics processing units (GPUs) to verify transactions during Ethereum's formative years as a proof-of-work blockchain.
The company began shifting its focus to cloud GPU computing around 2019 after discovering a hole in the market for competitively priced, scalable, and diverse computing options options it claimed were not offered by traditional providers. Notably, the reports of the Microsoft deal emerged just days After CoreWeave announced it was extending its $221 million Series B funding round from April, bringing its total raised to $421 million.
The Series B round was led by Magnetar Capital, with participation from long-term strategic partner Nvidia. In April, the company said the funding would be used to expand its cloud infrastructure, which is focused on a broad range of computing workloads such as AI , machine learning, visual effects and rendering, among others. Comments on Microsoft deal via Twitter, Nic Carter, Bitcoin
Advocate and general partner at Castle Island Ventures, highlighted the importance of the company changing the industry: “People make fun of the 'cryptocurrency to AI pivot', but CoreWeave went from mining ETH to using their fleet of cars to do calculations for AI, and now they're worth over $2B... now one of the fastest growing companies in the world."
