Aptos Labs, a layer 1 blockchain launched in the aftermath of Meta’s discontinued Diem project, has announced a major partnership with Microsoft as it looks to expand its blockchain infrastructure across the Web3 space.

The Aptos team revealed they would be tapping into Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) expertise to accelerate global adoption of Web3. They will use Microsoft’s infrastructure, including its Azure OpenAI Service, to power new AI and blockchain based products that make it easy for developers to release revolutionary applications.

The partnership will result in the creation of Aptos Assistant, a chatbot that streamlines access to information about the Aptos ecosystem, and the integration of Aptos’ native programming language, Move, into Github’s AI-powered Copilot service. This will provide developers with useful data and resources for the deployment of smart contracts and dApps.

The news has been well-received in the market, with the Aptos token surging to highs of $7.92 with an uptick of 18% in early afternoon trading on Wednesday.

The strong AI narrative in the mainstream tech sector has seen a number of crypto projects emerge to leverage the technology, including Numerai, Fetch.ai and Render. Aptos’ partnership with Microsoft furthers this trend, looking to expand global access to Web3.