By Max A. Cherney and Arsheeya Bajwa
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) unveiled its latest artificial intelligence processors on Monday and detailed its plan to develop AI chips over the next two years in a bid to challenge market leader Nvidia (NASDAQ:).
At the Computex technology fair in Taipei, AMD CEO Lisa Su introduced the MI325X accelerator, which is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The race to develop generative artificial intelligence programs has led to skyrocketing demand for the advanced chips used in AI data centers that can support these complex applications.
AMD is vying to compete with Nvidia, which currently dominates the lucrative AI semiconductor market and controls about 80% of its share.
Since last year, Nvidia has made it clear to investors that it plans to shorten its release cycle to annual, and now AMD has followed suit.
“AI is clearly our first priority as a company and we have really leveraged all development opportunities within the company to do that,” Su told reporters.
“This annual cadence exists because the market demands newer products and newer capabilities… Every year we have the next big thing so we always have the most competitive portfolio.”
AMD also introduced an upcoming series of chips titled MI350, which is expected to be available in 2025 and will be based on a new chip architecture.
Compared to currently available MI300 series AI chips, AMD says it expects the MI350 to perform 35 times better in inference: the process of calculating generative AI responses.
In addition, AMD unveiled the MI400 series, which will be released in 2026 and will be based on an architecture called “Next”.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had said on Sunday that the company’s next-generation AI chip platform, called Rubin, which will be rolled out in 2026, would include GPUs, CPUs and networking chips.
Investors, who poured billions of dollars into Wall Street’s pick-and-shovels business, are looking for longer-term updates from chip companies to extend the life of the booming GenAI rally, which shows no signs of slowing so far. to judge.
AMD shares were flat, while Nvidia rose more than 3% on Monday. AMD has more than doubled in value since the start of 2023, but the increase pales in comparison to the more than sevenfold rise in Nvidia’s stock over the same period.
“While the proof is in the pudding, there is no doubt that AMD is tackling Nvidia head-on and companies looking for alternatives to Nvidia will certainly be happy to hear what AMD had to say,” said Bob O’, chief analyst at Technalysis Research. Donnell.
AMD’s Su said in April that the company expects AI chip sales of about $4 billion by 2024, up $500 million from its previous estimate.
At the Computex event, AMD said the latest generation of central processor units will likely be available in the second half of 2024.
While companies generally prioritize spending on AI chips in data centers, some AMD CPUs are used in conjunction with graphics processing units, although the ratio is skewed in favor of GPUs.
AMD detailed architecture for its new neural processing units (NPUs), which are intended to handle on-device AI tasks in AI PCs.
Chipmakers have been betting on additional AI capabilities to boost growth in the PC market as it emerges from a years-long slump.
PC vendors such as HP (NYSE:) and Lenovo will release devices containing AMD’s AI PC chips. AMD said its processors exceed Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:) Copilot+ PC requirements.
