Anthropic's Claude family of AI models is now generally available through Microsoft Foundry on Azure, marking the first time Claude has run on NVIDIA hardware. The models are powered by NVIDIA's GB300 Blackwell Ultra GPU systems.
The rollout lets Azure customers build autonomous and domain-specific AI agents using Claude, directly competing with OpenAI's GPT models on Microsoft's own cloud platform. It follows a strategic partnership announced in November between Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Anthropic to bring Claude to NVIDIA-accelerated computing environments.
Claude models operate on NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems with Quantum-X800 InfiniBand networking, infrastructure designed to handle enterprise AI workloads at scale while maintaining high-speed connectivity. Anthropic said deploying on Blackwell Ultra GPUs improves inference performance and lowers total cost of ownership for enterprise workloads.
NVIDIA is also integrating its software ecosystem into the Claude platform. The collaboration includes NVIDIA Verified Agent Skills, which lets organizations give Claude-powered agents domain-specific capabilities using NVIDIA-accelerated computing resources.
Customers can deploy Claude agents on Azure through NVIDIA's Secure Agent Workspace Reference Design, which provides identity management, networking, credential protection, and runtime policy controls. The enterprise-grade controls are aimed at organizations that need to securely manage AI applications in production environments.
The general availability brings Anthropic deeper into Microsoft's AI ecosystem at a time when enterprises are investing heavily in agentic AI solutions capable of automating complex workflows. Azure customers can now access Claude through the same Foundry portal they use for other AI models, eliminating the need to manage separate infrastructure.
(Article by Bogdana Tech Pro)
