AMD unveils AI server as OpenAI taps its newest chips
Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su on Thursday unveiled a new artificial intelligence server for 2026 that aims to challenge Nvidia's flagship offerings as OpenAI's CEO said the ChatGPT creator would adopt AMD's latest chips.
Su took the stage at a developer conference in San Jose, California, called "Advancing AI" to discuss the MI350 series and MI400 series AI chips that she said would compete with Nvidia's Blackwell line of processors.
The MI400 series of chips will be the basis of a new server called "Helios" that AMD plans to release next year.
The move comes as the competition between Nvidia and other AI chip firms has shifted away from selling individual chips to selling servers packed with scores or even hundreds of processors, woven together with networking chips from the same company.
The AMD Helios servers will have 72 of AMD's MI400 series chips, making them comparable to Nvidia's current NVL72 servers, AMD executives said.
During its keynote presentation, AMD said that many aspects of the Helios servers - such as the networking standards - would be made openly available and shared with competitors such as Intel. The move was a direct swipe at market leader Nvidia, which uses proprietary technology called NVLink to string together its chips but has recently started to license that technology as pressure mounts from rivals.
"The future of AI is not going to be built by any one company or in a closed ecosystem. It's going to be shaped by open collaboration across the industry," Su said.
Su was joined onstage by OpenAI's Sam Altman. The ChatGPT creator is working with AMD on the firm's MI450 chips to improve their design for AI work.
"Our infrastructure ramp-up over the last year, and what we're looking at over the next year, have just been a crazy, crazy thing to watch," Altman said. During her speech, executives from Elon Musk-owned xAI, Meta Platforms and Oracle took to the stage to discuss their respective uses of AMD processors. Crusoe, a cloud provider that specializes in AI, told Reuters it is planning to buy $400 million of AMD's new chips.
AMD's Su reiterated the company's product plans for the next year, which will roughly match the annual release schedule that Nvidia began with its Blackwell chips.
AMD shares ended 2.2% lower after the company's announcement. Kinngai Chan, an analyst at Summit Insights, said the chips announced on Thursday were not likely to immediately change AMD's competitive position.
AMD has struggled to siphon off a portion of the quickly growing market for AI chips from the dominant Nvidia. But the company has made a concerted effort to improve its software and produce a line of chips that rival Nvidia's performance. AMD completed the acquisition of server builder ZT Systems in March. As a result, AMD is expected to launch new complete AI systems, similar to several of the server-rack-sized products Nvidia produces.
Santa Clara, California-based AMD has made a series of small acquisitions in recent weeks and has added talent to its chip design and AI software teams. At the event, Su said the company has made 25 strategic investments in the past year that were related to the company's AI plans.
Last week, AMD hired the team from chip startup Untether AI. On Wednesday, AMD said it had hired several employees from generative AI startup Lamini, including the co-founder and CEO.
AMD's software called ROCm has struggled to gain traction against Nvidia's CUDA, which is seen by some industry insiders as a key part of protecting the company's dominance. When AMD reported earnings in May, Su said that despite increasingly aggressive curbs on AI chip exports to China, AMD still expected strong double-digit growth from AI chips.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
US stock market: Nasdaq, Dow Jones, S&P 500 crash; Top gainers, top losers
US Stock Market on Friday tumbled as Israel-Iran conflict intensified and all eyes are now on President Donald Trump and how he handles the growing middle-east crisis. Nasdaq declined 1.30 per cent to 19,406.83 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.79 per cent to 42,197.79 points. S&P 500 declined 1.13 per cent to end the session at 5,976.97 points. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by financials, down 2.06 per cent, followed by a 1.5 per cent loss in information technology. Nvidia dipped 2.1 per cent and Apple lost 1.4 per cent. Photoshop maker Adobe fell 5.3 per cent as concerns that the company's pace of AI adoption was too slow overshadowed an increased annual revenue forecast. Oracle jumped 7.7 per cent to a record high, rallying for a second day after the technology company gave an upbeat forecast driven by demand for its AI services. More than seven percent rise in crude prices in the wake of the Iran-Israel conflict lifted Halliburton by 5.5 percent and ConocoPhillips 2.4 percent. US energy stocks rose in tandem, with Exxon up 2.2 per cent and Diamondback Energy rallying 3.7 per cent. Defense stocks climbed, with Lockheed Martin, RTX Corporation and Northrop Grumman all gaining over 3 per cent. Live Events Airline stocks fell on fears that fuel costs could climb. Delta Air Lines lost 3.8 per cent, United Airlines fell 4.4 per cent and American Airlines declined 4.9 per cent. Visa and Mastercard both fell more than 4 per cent after the Wall Street Journal reported that major retailers are exploring cryptocurrencies that could eliminate the need for payment intermediaries. PayPal dropped around five per cent, while American Express lost 3.4 percent. FAQs Q1. Which are top indexes of US Stock Market? A1. Top indexes of US Stock Market are Nasdaq, Dow Jones, and S&P 500. Q2. How have S&P 500 sector indexes performed? A2. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by financials, down 2.06 per cent, followed by a 1.5 per cent loss in information technology.
Economic Times
5 hours ago
- Economic Times
With Google's latest move, internet's becoming less ad-driven search, more user-paid GenAI
wwwhats-up@ As you browse the web, you must have encountered the 404 error, signifying that a web page can't be found. What you haven't seen is a similar code: 402. When Tim Berners- Lee was creating the World Wide Web, 402 was the code for 'payment required'. The original intention was that every visitor had to pay something to view a web page. But the schema was never built. So, there is no standardised encoded way to send or receive money online. In a 2019 podcast, Netscape builder Marc Andreessen explained: 'One would think the most obvious thing to do would be building in the browser the ability to actually spend money, right? You'll notice that didn't happen... we couldn't actually build economics into the core of the internet and so therefore advertising became the primary business model... We tried very hard to build payments into the browser. It was not possible... We made a huge mistake.' In 2014, internet expert Ethan Zuckerman wrote that 'advertising is the original sin of the web. The fallen state of our internet is a direct, if unintentional, consequence of choosing advertising as the default model to support online content and services.' Arguably, it's this 'original sin' that has made the largest destinations of the web the morass that it has become now. Thus, social networking has morphed into social media, as TikTok and Instagram pivoted to attention-seeking content that is optimised for views and clicks. This is also why Google's famous '10 blue links' are dominated by sponsored and advertiser preferences, rather than the succinct and accurate answer that a user wants. This drove even Berners-Lee to often regret his 'invention' and made him and others dream of a new kind of web - the concept of Web3, conceived to be 'owned' by users rather than advertisers, decentralised rather than concentrated with a handful of powerful tech companies, and, most importantly, have a different business model: that of micropayments. Thus, the user pays for the content she wants to consume, rather than advertiser paying for it, and the payment is also shared with the original the last 20 years, the company around which the existing web has revolved has been Google. While the 'advertiser pays' model was first brought in by companies like Yahoo and MSN, it was Google that perfected it as it made 'search' the way to organise the web. On the internet, if it's free, you're the product. Thus, Google and others sharply targeted and sold your attention, intentions and interest to advertisers who paid handsomely for it. How handsomely? Search contributed $54 bn of Google's $96 bn revenue in the last quarter, and reportedly most of its profitability. But it's also the model that held Google back and made it tiptoe tentatively into the world of GenAI. The search-through-chat business model of AI, which Perplexity or ChatGPT uses, does not lend itself as effectively to the advertising business model. Google experimented with 'AI Overviews' since I/O 2024. This model of AI-generated answers to common topics became popular with users, but reduced click rates on ads. This is the classical 'innovators' dilemma' that Harvard professor Clayton Christensen proposed in 1997, where he posited that great companies lose out to startup innovators, because they do not want to cannibalise their existing profitable business month, Google finally bit the bullet at I/O 2025, announcing that all its US users will be able to activate 'AI mode' in Google search and Chrome browser that will provide a conversational, question-and-answer experience akin to OpenAI's ChatGPT, rather than a traditional list of what happens to the super-profitable search business model? The company is tight-lipped about it, and is reportedly working to insert ads into AI answers. This is not as easy, however, since GenAI is a probabilistic tech, unlike the deterministic nature of traditional search. Thus, predicting what search result will come and matching advertiser needs to them becomes much more Google has hinted at a change in revenue model, with a $20 subscription for the service, and a $250 subscription for the super-premium version. So, with this monumental change, is the World Wide Web shifting on its axis? And does it take us one step closer to the dreams of a new web - user-owned, more democratic, and where you are finally not the product?Time will tell. But what is clear is that I/O 2025 did not signal just the re-emergence of Google in AI leaders, but also the emergence of a new kind of internet. So far, it was search around which the web was organised and the advertiser-driven model that paid for it. Maybe, we are now inching towards a web organised around GenAI, with subscribers paying for it - and content creators getting ably rewarded too. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Warren Buffett-fan Pabrai is betting big on Edelweiss' Rashesh Shah. Will it pay off? Coal on one hand and green on the other; this company balances both Yet another battle over neem; this time it's a startup vs. Procter & Gamble Move over tariffs, China wields rare earths in an economic war of a different kind Is Zomato under siege? Quick commerce may be the next telecom 9 stocks from different segments of financial services sector with an upside potential of up to 37% Stock picks of the week: 5 stocks with consistent score improvement and return potential of more than 32% in 1 year Is an oil shock on its way? 14 stocks to watch carefully if the Iran-Israel conflict leads to a sustained rise in crude oil prices
Economic Times
5 hours ago
- Economic Times
Will AI take your job?
Amidst AI's rise and concerns about job displacement, students and professionals are increasingly turning to meditation for clarity and intuition. As AI automates tasks, the focus shifts towards cultivating uniquely human qualities like inner balance and potential. This pursuit of human capabilities becomes essential in navigating the evolving technological landscape. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of .) When Sam Altman , the CEO of Open AI , warned in 2023 that AI could 'cause significant harm to the world', it wasn't just lawmakers who took notice. Students, engineers and fresh graduates flooded Google with searches like 'Will AI take over my job?' and 'Is coding still relevant?'Meditation sessions at IITs, B-schools and startup hubs garner interest as tools for clarity and balance in a tech-saturated world, and as Gen Z wishes to develop what AI lacks: Jobs once said, 'Intuition is more powerful than intellect.' Intuition, sharpened through stillness, can give us the cutting edge. Meditation is becoming our career armour. IT giants enable employees to work with AI, but some leaders recommend a parallel shift, teaching employees to stay focused and centred. Inner balance might be tomorrow's main may automate tasks, but it can't automate you. Each of us is a unique, carefully designed program of nature, whose innate potential and abilities extend far beyond the capabilities of mere machines. The real revolution? Discovering true human the movie 'Her', a man falls in love with an AI voice. It is an indication of where we are heading. We must pause and choose how to equip ourselves in the AI era.
