# Microsoft Shares Rise as Company Expands Custom Azure Maia AI Chips

- URL: https://stocks.freetheai.org/news/microsoft-shares-rise-as-company-expands-custom-azure-maia-ai-chips-bc5a41
- Published: 2026-10-12T15:47:34Z
- Category: technology; sentiment: bullish; impact: medium
- Symbols: [NASDAQ:MSFT](https://stocks.freetheai.org/symbols/NASDAQ-MSFT)
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Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) stock traded higher after announcing plans to significantly scale up its in-house artificial intelligence hardware. The technology giant plans to expand its Azure Maia chip infrastructure to multi-gigawatt scale starting in 2027, using the processors as the primary computing engine for inference tasks across its product suite.

The expansion centers on the current Maia 200 processor, which is already active in data centers across North America, Europe, and Australia, handling live Copilot workloads and internal AI model development. By the end of the year, GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Foundry will also run on Maia 200. Looking ahead, the company introduced details for its next-generation Maia 300 processor, designed for multi-step agent tasks and long-context reasoning. The Maia 300 is projected to deliver 40% higher token output per megawatt compared to leading GPU-based systems, offering up to seven times the rack-scale throughput of its predecessor.

Investors will look to further technical updates and customer adoption metrics at the Microsoft Ignite conference scheduled for next month in San Francisco. Deployments for the Maia 300 chips are slated to begin in production in 2027 as the company expands its open multi-model AI infrastructure.

## Key points

- Microsoft Corporation shares climbed following plans to expand its Azure Maia AI chips to multi-gigawatt deployments starting in 2027.
- The Maia 200 processor currently handles live Copilot workloads and is expanding to power GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Foundry by year-end.
- The upcoming Maia 300 chip is expected to offer 40% more tokens per megawatt than leading GPU systems, with deployments beginning in 2027.
- Data center installations for Maia 200 are currently active across the United States, Europe, and Australia.

## Questions and answers

### Why is Microsoft stock rising?

Microsoft shares gained after the company announced plans to expand its custom Azure Maia AI chip deployment to multi-gigawatt installations starting in 2027.

### What is Microsoft Azure Maia 200?

Azure Maia 200 is Microsoft's custom AI chip designed for inference workloads. It currently powers Copilot features and is scheduled to support GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Foundry by the end of the year.

### When will Microsoft deploy Maia 300?

Microsoft plans to begin deploying the Maia 300 processor in production starting in 2027. The chip is engineered for complex reasoning and multi-step AI agent tasks.