Microsoft, future Arm for Surface and datacenter

Microsoft, future Arm for Surface and datacenter
Microsoft is secretly working on its own Arm processors, designed primarily for its own data centers dedicated to the cloud offering. To all this the group would also add the parallel development of a processor for the Surface offering, thus following what Apple has carried out with its M1s.

Even Microsoft in orbit Arm

On the first front there is the presumably more interesting aspect, since applied to what is today the first front of revenues for the Microsoft world: succeeding in the enterprise of developing entire datacenters around a chip designed in-house could return an important competitive advantage in view of a long-term bet on Azure.

On the second front, however, we must not fall into the temptation to see today's rumor as a way in which Microsoft goes to mimic Apple in what was done on M1: Redmond, in fact, has already worked ahead of time on the Arm chips in collaboration with Qualcomm and any evolution of the project would be nothing more than a second step. However, Apple has infused much more energy into its launch, while for Microsoft it was a relatively timid initiative that still awaits developments. The first step takes the name of SQ 2, processor with Arm architecture to date expressly dedicated to the Surface Pro X line.

Inevitably similar rumors become a boulder on Intel's shoulders: the group closed the week on the stock market with a -6% in the wake of the simple hypothesis that Microsoft can enter the datacenter market hand and foot (now dominated by Intel with a position of full control).

Source: Bloomberg