Microsoft Arm CPUs for Azure VMs

VM Series	Processor	Status	Category	vCPUs	Memory
Dpsv5	Ampere Altra	GA	General Purpose	2-64	8-208 GB
Epsv5	Ampere Altra	GA	Memory Optimized	2-32	16-208 GB
Bpsv2	Ampere Altra	GA	Burstable	2-16	1-64 GB
Dpsv6	Cobalt 100	Preview	General Purpose	2-96	8-384 GB
Epsv6	Cobalt 100	Preview	Memory Optimized	2-96	16-672 GB

• A second generation of Arm-based Azure VMs, based on Microsoft’s own Cobalt 100 processors, is available in preview.
• Cobalt 100 competes with Amazon Graviton and Google Axion processors and boasts improvements over existing Ampere-based Azure VMs.
• Microsoft claims 40% higher CPU performance and a significant increase to network and storage throughput, but VM pricing is not yet available.
• Arm-based Azure VMs are useful primarily for Linux workloads, and there is no support for Windows Server workloads yet.

Microsoft introduced the Cobalt 100 Arm-based processor in late 2023 and already has deployed it internally to host some Azure services. In May 2024, the company announced a preview of Azure VMs using Cobalt 100 processors for customer deployment, joining existing Arm-based VMs using Ampere Altra processors. Cobalt 100 processors could increase performance, reduce power demand, and cut operating costs compared to Intel and AMD CPUs in the same price range—similar to what Arm-based processors from Amazon and Google currently offer. However, with no commercially available version of Windows Server for Arm, the benefits of Arm-based VMs are limited to Linux workloads for the time being.