Microsoft Singapore Woodlands Data Center News

Vodafone signs 10-year agreement with Microsoft

Vodafone has signed a 10-year agreement with Microsoft for generative AI, cloud computing, and IoT services. As part of this agreement, Vodafone will invest $1.5bn in the cloud giant and will be using Microsoft Azure's OpenAI and Copilot technologies for its customer experience, exit "multiple...

January 16, 2024

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft and PNNL to conduct battery materials research

Microsoft and the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have partnered to find the best materials for batteries. Using Microsoft's Azure Quantum Elements, they have reduced the possibilities of materials from millions to only a few options, with one curre...

January 15, 2024

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Qcells announces long-term extension of alliance with Microsoft

South Korean solar panel producer Qcells this week announced an eight-year strategic alliance with Microsoft Corp. to extend the companies’ existing solar panel supply deal. This extension comes as Microsoft looks to procure a large amount of solar panels produced in the US for its renewable e...

January 09, 2024

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Singapore considers making data centers and clouds "critical infrastructure"

Singapore’s government is currently contemplating marking data centers and clouds as "critical infrastructure,” and extending oversight to cloud service providers and data center operators. A decision in this regard is expected to be made by January 15, 2024. Currently, the Cybersecurity Age...

December 22, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Singapore

Microsoft signs large Biorchar carbon removal agreement with Carbonfuture

Microsoft has recently signed a large deal to pay for biochar production in Bolivia to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Following this deal, Exomad Green, the world’s largest biochar producer, will create the inert carbon residue at its facility in Concepción, Bolivia. Microsoft will pay for...

December 20, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Seraya Partners reaches goal of $800 million APAC funding

Singapore-based Seraya Partners has closed an $800 million fund dedicated to digital infrastructure and energy transition investments. Half of the fund has already been dedicated to three companies: data center operator Empyrion DC, offshore wind vessel operator Cyan Renewables, and solar, win...

December 14, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Singapore

Microsoft to use renewable natural gas in San Jose facility

Microsoft recently revealed its plans to use renewable natural gas (RNG) made from food waste to help power a microgrid that provides resilience at its San Jose data center. Fuel cell provider Enchanted Rock is in charge of this project and announced in 2022 that the microgrid would use biogas...

December 13, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft to expand its footprint in Canada

Microsoft this week announced that it will be expanding its footprint in Canada with multiple new data centers with an investment of US$500 million to expand its cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Quebec over the next two years. The company notes that this investment will increase its lo...

November 23, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Sam Altman returns as OpenAI’s CEO, with new board

Sam Altman, who was suddenly fired by the board has “reached an agreement in principle” to return as CEO of OpenAI as nearly all of OpenAI’s employees threatened to leave the company if the board did not reverse its decision. Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear, who was appointed as interim CEO ai...

November 23, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and colleagues join Microsoft

Microsoft has recruited Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and other OpenAI researchers who left the startup over the weekend to head a new advanced AI research team. The OpenAI board abruptly fired Altman, saying he was "not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its abi...

November 20, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft announces two in-house designed semiconductors

Microsoft has recently announced it is working on two in-house designed semiconductors. One is an Arm CPU called the Microsoft Azure Cobalt CPU, designed for general workloads, focusing on performance per watt and a dedicated AI accelerator. The other is the Microsoft Azure Maia AI Accelerator...

November 15, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft signs agreement to use Oracle Cloud for AI inference

Oracle recently announced a multi-year agreement with Microsoft to support the growth of AI services. Following this agreement, Microsoft will use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) AI infrastructure and Microsoft Azure AI infrastructure to infuse AI models to power Microsoft Bing conversationa...

November 08, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft to develop new facility in Rome, Georgia

Microsoft has revealed its plans to construct a new data center campus on a 347-acre property on Huffaker Road, east of Fouche Gap Road, outside Rome, Georgia. The Rome Floyd County Development Authority (RFCDA), as well as several local news outlets, announced the $1 billion campus outside th...

November 02, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft unveils Israeli Azure cloud region

Microsoft revealed in an update that it has launched its newest Israeli Azure cloud region. The company noted in a now-deleted update, “We are launching our newest data center region in Israel. The new Israel Central data center region includes Azure availability zones, which offer you additio...

November 01, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft withdraws plans for Czech data center

Tech giant Microsoft has reportedly canceled plans for a data center in Prague in the Czech Republic due to "complex bureaucracy and long wait times for decisions." An E15 source noted, "A certain small hope is still alive, but rather it is wishful thinking of the managers of the domestic bra...

October 24, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Distribution failure causes power outage at Microsoft data center

A Microsoft data center experienced a two-hour outage as its electrical distribution system failed when the company attempted to swap from utility power to its backup generators. Microsoft noted in a newly published report that a power issue impacted some customers in a single Availability Zon...

October 24, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft, Shizen Energy sign 20-year solar PPA

Shizen Energy Inc. announced its latest 20-year virtual VPPA with Microsoft to supply renewable energy from a 25MWac solar farm in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture. This agreement between both companies marks Microsoft’s first PPA in Japan. Sizen is also constructing a solar farm, which will rep...

October 20, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft to build data center automation and robotics team

Microsoft recently revealed plans to build a team dedicated to researching data center automation and robotics. The tech giant has also posted a job listing for a hardware automation team manager specializing in robotics.The job listing states, "As the Team Manager - Hardware Robotics, for our...

October 20, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

IRS, Microsoft disagree over alleged tax debt

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alleges that tech giant Microsoft owes the US government about $28.9 billion in taxes, penalties, and interest. However, Microsoft has denied these charges and intents to "vigorously contest" them. Microsoft revealed in an SEC filing that it received a Notice...

October 19, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

UK regulators approves Microsoft's acquisition of $68.7bn Activision Blizzard acquisition

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has finally approved Microsoft's proposed acquisition of famous video games publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This comes after an initial blockage of the deal over concerns relating to the impact of this acquisition on competition...

October 18, 2023

Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Microsoft Azure

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