AMD unveils new AI chips to compete with Nvidia

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses AMD's unveiling of its latest artificial intelligence (AI) processors and its plan to develop AI chips over the next two years to challenge industry leader Nvidia. It covers AMD's new AI accelerator, the MI325X, as well as its upcoming MI350 and MI400 series of AI chips, and compares them to Nvidia's plans for its next-generation AI chip platform.

🙋 Q&A

[01] AMD's AI Processor Unveiling

1. What are the key details about AMD's new AI processors?

• AMD unveiled the MI325X accelerator, which will be available in Q4 2024.
• AMD also introduced the upcoming MI350 series, expected in 2025, which is expected to perform 35 times better in inference compared to the current MI300 series.
• The MI400 series, based on a new "Next" architecture, will arrive in 2026.

2. How does AMD's AI chip development plan compare to Nvidia's?

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had previously announced the company's next-generation AI chip platform, Rubin, which will include GPUs, CPUs, and networking chips and is set to be rolled out in 2026.
• AMD is aiming to match Nvidia's annual release cadence for new AI chips to stay competitive.

3. What is the significance of AMD's AI chip development efforts?

• The race to develop generative AI programs has led to high demand for advanced AI chips used in data centers.
• AMD is seeking to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the lucrative AI semiconductor market, where Nvidia currently holds about 80% share.
• Investors are looking for longer-term updates from chip companies to evaluate the longevity of the booming generative AI trend.

[02] AMD's AI Chip Sales and PC Market

1. What are AMD's expectations for its AI chip sales?

• AMD CEO Lisa Su said the company expects AI chip sales of roughly $4 billion for 2024, an increase of $500 million from its prior estimate.

2. How are AMD's AI chips being used in the PC market?

• AMD detailed its new neural processing units (NPUs) dedicated to handling on-device AI tasks in AI PCs.
• PC providers like HP and Lenovo will release devices that include AMD's AI PC chips, which AMD says exceed Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirements.
• While businesses prioritize AI chips for data centers, some of AMD's CPUs are used in conjunction with graphics processor units (GPUs) in PCs, though the ratio is skewed in favor of GPUs.