Recently, Microsoft announced that former Meta executive Jason Taylor has joined its AI supercomputing team. Microsoft’s CTO, Kevin Scott, shared on LinkedIn that Taylor will serve as Vice President and Deputy Chief Technology Officer, focusing on "developing next-generation systems to advance the frontiers of artificial intelligence."
During his tenure at Meta from 2009 to 2022, Taylor was Vice President of Infrastructure, overseeing AI, data, and privacy infrastructure while managing the company's server budget. He also served as the Chair of the Open Compute Project Foundation from 2015 to 2017, advocating for open-source designs in data centers.
Both Microsoft and OpenAI have recently emphasized the need for more powerful hardware to support their expanding AI systems. Reports surfaced last month suggesting that they plan to construct a $100 billion supercomputer named "Stargate" to power OpenAI's models. However, Scott refuted these rumors on LinkedIn, describing most speculation as “laughably incorrect.”
In March of this year, Microsoft also appointed Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google DeepMind, as the CEO of its new consumer AI division, which oversees products like Copilot, Bing, and Edge.
Taylor's addition brings a wealth of experience to Microsoft's AI supercomputing team, promising to drive further innovation and development in the field of artificial intelligence.