Build 2026: Microsoft opens Azure Cobalt 200 VMs in early access

2026-06-02 · Publisher : Microsoft · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

At Build 2026, Microsoft launches Azure Cobalt 200 VMs in early access, its second-generation 3 nm Arm processor, up to 128 vCPUs. It claims up to 50% more CPU performance than Cobalt 100.

### What changes On 2 June 2026, at Microsoft Build, Microsoft announces early access to Azure Cobalt 200 virtual machines, based on the second generation of its in-house Arm processor. It is designed for cloud-native Linux workloads and for AI agent workloads. Microsoft notes that Cobalt 100, the previous generation, is deployed in 32 Azure regions. ### Key facts - Processor built on Arm Neoverse V3 Compute Subsystems, manufactured at TSMC on 3 nm (N3P), with a chiplet architecture and a custom memory controller. - Up to 128 vCPUs per VM; 3 MB of L2 cache per core and 192 MB of system-level L3 cache. - According to Microsoft, compared with Cobalt 100: up to 50% more CPU performance, 20% more remote NVMe storage IOPS, 10% more storage throughput and 15% more network bandwidth. - Gains announced by workload: up to 135% for databases, 40% for web serving, 45% for communication encryption and 80% for caching. - Memory encryption enabled by default, thanks to the memory controller designed by Microsoft. - Early access in eight regions, including Sweden Central, Spain Central and Indonesia Central; Dplsv7, Dpsv7, Epsv7, Mpsv4 and Lpsv5 series. ### Why it matters Azure's Arm VMs are becoming a common route for Linux workloads: containers, databases, caches, APIs. Cobalt 200 targets this audience with an announced 50% gain from one generation to the next. The figures are the vendor's own, from its own benchmarks. Early access does not yet allow planning a production migration. ### Takeaway Azure renews its in-house Arm processor a little over a year and a half after Cobalt 100 became available.

Tags : Azure, Puces, Hyperscaler, Conférence