Microsoft and Qualcomm unite to improve AI for developers

Microsoft has announced it is collaborating with Qualcomm to improve the experience of developers working with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

It’s not the first time the companies have worked together – recent examples include products and solutions for the Microsoft Surface Pro X and Vision AI Developer Kit – but the new partnership will focus exclusively on improving enterprise experiences with the likes of Microsoft Azure and Azure IoT platform, and Qualcomm’s IoT processors and AI interferencing products.

Moe Tanabian, vice president and general manager of Azure edge devices, Microsoft, said, “This newest collaboration is just as exciting. Qualcomm Technologies’ position in the mobile ecosystem enables them to drive hardware-accelerated inference capabilities from ultra-low power edge AI solutions all the way to high-performance AI inferencing in the cloud using the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100, leveraging 5G deployments with commercial customers. This makes them an excellent company to team up with for our new, polished AI and ML developer experience.

“I know I speak for the entire Microsoft Azure Edge Devices team when I say we’re very excited to be working with Qualcomm Technologies on solutions to benefit enterprise developers and deployers across industries.”

‘5G and AI are the key technologies’

Keith Kressin, senior president and general manager, compute and cloud, Qualcomm Technologies, said, “5G and AI are the two key technologies today fueling the convergence of the cloud and devices at the edge of networks. Collaborating with Microsoft to accelerate AI across a wide breadth of connected devices from the edge to the cloud, with our platform that runs single-milliwatt to Snapdragon to the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100, will enable a variety of powerful new applications and services.”