Microsoft boss Satya Nadella has hired Pradeep Sindhu, who set up networking gear maker Juniper Networks to lead the network card project, the report said quoting a source in the know.

Vole snapped up Sindhu's server chip firm, Fungible, last year.

The new network card is like Nvidia's ConnectX-7 card, which the chip firm flogs with its graphic processor units (GPUs). The kit could take over a year to make and, if it works, could speed up the time it takes for OpenAI to train its models on Microsoft servers and make the process cheaper, according to the report.

Vole  has splashed out billions of pounds on ChatGPT-creator OpenAI and has used its technology in loads of products, giving the Windows-maker an edge in the race to sell artificial-intelligence software.

The company had launched Maia, a chip meant to run big language models and back AI computing, in November.