Microsoft Partners with Lumen Technologies to Enhance AI Workload Capacity

Microsoft aims to boost AI workload capacity with Lumen Technologies partnership

Microsoft will use Lumen Technologies' network equipment to expand its capacity for AI workloads, the companies said on Wednesday, as the technology giant looks to meet growing demand at its data centers. Microsoft said in April that a shortage of data center infrastructure needed to deploy AI models was hampering its ability to capitalize on the boom in the technology. The company has taken an early lead in the AI race thanks to its investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and has been pouring billions of dollars into cloud infrastructure to maintain its edge over Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com . As part of the deal on Wednesday, Lumen will tap the tech giant's Azure cloud services to cut costs. The switch to Azure, the companies said, will help improve Lumen's cash flow by more than $20 million over the next 12 months, aiding the turnaround efforts at the company that restructured its debt in March. Lumen had $18.59 billion in long-term debt as of March 31, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. (Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

Microsoft aims to boost AI workload capacity with Lumen partnership

Microsoft will use Lumen Technologies' network equipment to expand its capacity for AI workloads, the companies said on Wednesday, as the technology giant looks to meet growing demand at its data centers. Microsoft said in April that a shortage of data center infrastructure needed to deploy AI models was hampering its ability to capitalize on the boom in the technology. The company has taken an early lead in the AI race thanks to its investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and has been pouring billions of dollars into cloud infrastructure to maintain its edge over Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com . Microsoft to lay off hundreds at Azure cloud unit: Report As part of the deal on Wednesday, Lumen will tap the tech giant's Azure cloud services to cut costs. (For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today's Cache) The switch to Azure, the companies said, will help improve Lumen's cash flow by more than $20 million over the next 12 months, aiding the turnaround efforts at the company that restructured its debt in March. Lumen, whose shares were 3% higher in early trading, had $18.59 billion in long-term debt as of March 31, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. Read Comments

Microsoft aims to boost AI workload capacity with Lumen Technologies partnership - ET Telecom

Microsoft will use Lumen Technologies' network equipment to expand its capacity for AI workloads, the companies said on Wednesday, as the technology giant looks to meet growing demand at its data centers. Microsoft said in April that a shortage of data center infrastructure needed to deploy AI models was hampering its ability to capitalize on the boom in the technology. The company has taken an early lead in the AI race thanks to its investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and has been pouring billions of dollars into cloud infrastructure to maintain its edge over Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com. As part of the deal on Wednesday, Lumen will tap the tech giant's Azure cloud services to cut costs. The switch to Azure, the companies said, will help improve Lumen's cash flow by more than $20 million over the next 12 months, aiding the turnaround efforts at the company that restructured its debt in March. Lumen had $18.59 billion in long-term debt as of March 31, according to its latest quarterly earnings report.

Microsoft aims to boost AI workload capacity with Lumen Technologies partnership

The company has taken an early lead in the AI race thanks to its investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and has been pouring billions of dollars into cloud infrastructure to maintain its edge over Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com. As part of the deal on Wednesday, Lumen will tap the tech giant's Azure cloud services to cut costs. The switch to Azure, the companies said, will help improve Lumen's cash flow by more than $20 million over the next 12 months, aiding the turnaround efforts at the company that restructured its debt in March. Lumen had $18.59 billion in long-term debt as of March 31, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. (Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

Microsoft aims to boost AI workload capacity with Lumen partnership

The company has taken an early lead in the AI race thanks to its investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and has been pouring billions of dollars into cloud infrastructure to maintain its edge over Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com. As part of the deal on Wednesday, Lumen will tap the tech giant's Azure cloud services to cut costs. The switch to Azure, the companies said, will help improve Lumen's cash flow by more than $20 million over the next 12 months, aiding the turnaround efforts at the company that restructured its debt in March. Lumen, whose shares were 3% higher in early trading, had $18.59 billion in long-term debt as of March 31, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. (Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

Microsoft Taps Lumen to Meet AI Data Center Demands

The collaboration, announced Wednesday (July 24), will see Lumen use Microsoft's cloud to further its "digital transformation." Microsoft, meanwhile, will use Lumen to expand its network capacity and capability amid growing demand on its data centers due to artificial intelligence (AI). "AI is reshaping our daily lives and fundamentally changing how businesses operate," Erin Chapple, corporate vice president of Azure Core Product and Design at Microsoft, said in a news release. "We are focused both on the impact and opportunity for customers relative to AI today, and a generation ahead when it comes to our network infrastructure." Lumen, Chapple added, has the network infrastructure and the digital capabilities required to help Azure create a reliable, scalable platform. For its part, Lumen said Microsoft's cloud and AI tech can help it cut technology costs, "remove legacy systems and silos," improve its offerings, and create new solutions for customers. Lumen said it will move its workloads to Microsoft Azure, use Microsoft Entra solutions to protect access and prevent identity attacks and work with Microsoft on telecom industry-specific solutions. "This element alone is expected to improve Lumen's cash flow by more than $20 million over the next 12 months while also improving the company's customer experience," the release said. In other Microsoft news, PYMNTS wrote last week that the company -- as it continues its work to add AI to every part of the digital world -- "has set its sights on conquering the final frontier of office productivity: the humble spreadsheet." The tech giant's latest creation, SpreadsheetLLM, is designed to alter how businesses crunch numbers and make decisions. By tapping into the power of large language models (LLMs), this AI tool, which is still in the testing stages, could turn Excel from a static grid into a dynamic, question-answering powerhouse -- potentially reshaping workflows for millions of users.

Microsoft taps Lumen to bolster AI DC networks

Microsoft has tasked network operator Lumen Technologies -- formerly CenturyLink -- with scaling up its network capacity as the Windows giant looks to grow its burgeoning AI services business, the duo revealed Wednesday. Specifically, the deal will see Microsoft employ Lumen's Private Connectivity Fabric to bolster both bandwidth and overall capacity between its AI datacenters using a combination of current and fresh fiber lines dedicated to the cause. The partnership comes as Microsoft looks to capitalize on its early investments in OpenAI by shoehorning the super-lab's generative neural networks into everything from GitHub and Office 365 to the Windows platform as a whole. However, these AI products require the processing and transfer of massive quantities of data, putting pressure on existing datacenter interconnect networks. Modern large language models, like those being developed in Microsoft datacenters by OpenAI, are often trained on many terabytes - tens if not hundreds of TB - of data. Meanwhile, larger models demand bigger compute clusters containing tens of thousands of GPUs working in unison in order to train such systems in meaningful amounts of time. As Microsoft looks to grow its AI infrastructure business to support fresh clients and model builders, it's not surprising that there are challenges with inter-datacenter capacity. It's not clear how much additional capacity the partnership will afford Microsoft. We suspect some of this will depend on the intended use case of the model as the technology and constraints involved will differ depending on whether Microsoft is looking to scale its GPU cluster across multiple sites, or is simply looking to bolster its inter-datacenter communications. We've asked the folks at Redmond for clarification and will let you know if we hear anything back. As part of the deal, Lumen has committed to migrating at least some of its workloads to run in Microsoft Azure. These efforts will apparently include integrating Microsoft's AI technology into Lumen's products and employing Redmond's Entra identity management and access control platform. Lumen expects the migration will save it more than $20 million over the next year and improve its customer service experience, which might suggest that Lumen may be looking to offload some of its customer service roles to Microsoft's OpenAI-based chatbots. ®

Microsoft, Lumen Collaborate On AI-Driven Datacenter Expansion - Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN)

Lumen to migrate operations to Microsoft Azure, boosting cash flow by over $20 million next year. Microsoft Corporation MSFT is partnering with Lumen Technologies, Inc. LUMN to leverage Microsoft Cloud for Lumen's digital transformation. What Happened: The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant selected Lumen to enhance network capacity and support increased demand at its AI-driven datacenters. Lumen's Private Connectivity Fabric provides dedicated fiber access and advanced digital services, enhancing connectivity and capacity for Microsoft's datacenters to meet growing data demands. Lumen is transforming its operations by adopting Microsoft's cloud and AI technologies to cut costs, eliminate legacy systems, enhance offerings, and develop new solutions. See Also: Fiber Optic Company Amphenol Hikes Dividend As Sales Jump 18% Why It Matters: Migrating to Microsoft Azure and using Microsoft Entra should enhance Lumen's customer experience. The company also expects an increase in cash flow by over $20 million in the next year. Erin Chapple, Microsoft corporate vice president of Azure Core Product and Design, said Lumen has the network infrastructure and "digital capabilities" needed to help support Azure's mission. Lumen expects to release second quarter 2024 results on Aug. 6, 2024. Invesco Exchange-Traded Fund Trust II Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 Investors can gain exposure to the stock via Revenue ETF RWJ and IShares Robotics And Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF IRBO Price Action: LUMN shares are up 5.36% at $1.5700 at the last check Wednesday. Now Read: Warren Buffett Says 'Inflation Is Never Gone It's Always In Remission. It's Something That Is Human-Made And Governments Can Create' Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs