Clarification Needed: Is the NVIDIA A100 VM Series Being Retired in Azure?

Question

Hello Azure Community,

Recently, our client mentioned that the NVIDIA A100 GPU ("card A100") is being retired soon. We want to confirm how this might impact our Azure VMs that leverage A100 GPUs.

Specifically:

• Are any A100-based VM series (such as NC24ads_A100_v4 ) planned for retirement?
• If not, is there any historical context where Azure has deprecated A100 GPU sizes?
• What are the recommended migration paths or alternative VM SKU suggestions if such retirements are planned?

For reference, I know that Azure is retiring older NCv3-series VMs powered by NVIDIA V100 (Standard_NC6s_v3, NC12s_v3, NC24s_v3, NC24rs_v3) by September 30, 2025, but those do not include A100 series.

Thanks in advance for clarifying!

Answer 1

Hi, no, there’s no Microsoft announcement retiring A100-based VM series (NC A100 v4 / ND A100 v4); the only GPU retirement currently in scope is the V100-based NCv3 on Sep 30, 2025. If you eventually need a successor, consider NCads H100 v5 or ND H100 v5; otherwise keep using A100 v4 and just monitor the “retired sizes” page.

Answer 2

Emna Naili

As of current official Microsoft announcements, there is no public announcement to retire the NVIDIA A100 GPU-based VM series (such as NC24ads_A100_v4).

The retirement announced by Microsoft is specifically for older NCv3-series VMs powered by NVIDIA V100 GPUs, including Standard_NC6s_v3, NC12s_v3, NC24s_v3, and NC24rs_v3, with retirement planned by September 30, 2025.

The A100 GPU VM series belongs to the newer generation (NC A100 v4-series) and remains actively supported with no announced retirement.

Azure GPU VM Series Overview: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/overview?tabs=breakdownseries%2Cgeneralsizelist%2Ccomputesizelist%2Cmemorysizelist%2Cstoragesizelist%2Cgpusizelist%2Cfpgasizelist%2Chpcsizelist#gpu-accelerated

Azure retirement announcements for VM SKUs: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-virtual-machines-vm-renewal-retirements/

For workloads running NCv3-series (V100 GPUs) being retired by September 2025, consider migrating to NC A100 v4-series VMs (e.g., Standard_NC24ads_A100_v4) which provide significantly better performance and capabilities.