Microsoft Unveils Its Next-Generation Arm-Based CPU - Cobalt 200 Looks to Unlock Even More Azure Power

Why It Matters

Cobalt 200 could significantly lower Azure’s power and operating expenses while boosting performance for a wide range of cloud workloads, strengthening Microsoft’s competitive position against x86‑based offerings and reinforcing its push toward energy‑efficient, secure cloud infrastructure.

Summary

Microsoft unveiled Cobalt 200, its next‑generation Arm‑based CPU for Azure, promising up to 50 % higher performance than the Cobalt 100 while retaining full compatibility with existing deployments. Built on a 3 nm process, the 132‑core chip features per‑core dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, dedicated accelerators for compression, encryption and decompression, and a custom memory controller that encrypts memory by default, leveraging Arm’s Confidential Compute Architecture and Azure’s Hardware Security Module. The design targets data‑analytics, web, network‑intensive and storage‑heavy workloads, aiming to cut energy use and compute costs, with broader availability slated for 2026 and early deployments already in select data centres.