We've barely seen AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs in action yet, but a new rumor suggests we could be getting an Nvidia RTX 5090 competitor at last
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A new rumor hints at AMD potentially working on a 32GB RDNA 4 GPU
If true, it would launch sometime in 2025
A 32GB gaming GPU would likely compete with Nvidia's RTX 5090
It seems Nvidia has taken the GPU market by storm yet again with its powerhouse RTX 5000 series GPUs, while AMD focuses on its midrange RDNA 4 GPUs launching in March - but a new rumor suggests AMD is also working on a GPU that won't be a midrange card, but could instead compete against Team Green's flagship GPU.
According to Zhangzhonghao, who is reliable for AMD leaks in the past on Chiphell (reported by NotebookCheck), AMD could be working on an RDNA 4 GPU that utilizes 32GB of VRAM, slated for launch sometime in 2025. It's unclear whether this will be a gaming GPU or one dedicated to workstation desktop PCs, but it's very promising to say the least.
Nvidia's RTX 5090 boasts 32GB of VRAM and is the best GPU you can buy (despite current inflated prices and limited availability). While VRAM isn't the be-all and end-all, plenty of games are VRAM hungry (especially when played at high resolutions like 4K), and it suggests this GPU will be aimed at the high-end of the market, rather than the more affordable GPUs we've come to expect from AMD.
We've already seen glimpses of what Team Red's Radeon RX 9070 XT has to offer with early 4K native performance results in Call of Duty Black Ops 6, which suggests that upcoming card will be a midrange GPU. Rumors of a 32GB GPU, then, are pretty exciting for gamers who have been hoping AMD would once more release powerful high-end GPUs to take on Nvidia...
The RTX 5090 and RTX 5080's prices are currently inflated at almost every retailer due to a combination of scalpers and limited availability, so you can probably forget about buying either of them for now (unless you're willing to throw the entire contents of your wallet at them). I fully expect the same to happen to the RTX 5070 Ti ($749 / £729 / AU$1,509) and the RTX 5070 ($549 / £529 / AU$1,109) launching later in February.
With this in mind, I'm banking on AMD's Radeon RX 9000 series launch in March to provide some necessary competition in the GPU market. If the new RDNA 4 GPUs end up being affordable options while still offering a high level of performance in games, it could give Nvidia a reason to look over its shoulder for once and give gamers more options.
Nvidia has dominated the GPU market for years, not only by providing high performing GPUs, but also with industry-leading upscaling technologies like DLSS. We're still waiting to see FSR 4's full unveiling (which is AMD's DLSS equivalent) - and while I'm impressed by what I've seen from Team Green's DLSS 4, a few early glimpses of AMD's FSR 4 has me excited for what this means for image stability in games, along with the chance of higher frame rates.
Better yet, if this fresh rumor of a 32GB RDNA 4 gaming GPU is legitimate, it will be hard for PC gamers to ignore Team Red's efforts on this occasion. It's undeniable that many favor Nvidia's GPUs thanks to the high performance levels when activating ray tracing and DLSS, but perhaps things could swing in AMD's favor this time around…
Nvidia is investigating reports of crashes plaguing RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs, with possible driver issues maybe hitting RTX 4000 models too
Bring it on Nvidia - AMD confirms new Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs will launch in early March, rivaling Team Green's rumored RTX 5060 Ti and 5060 launch
The Nvidia vs AMD GPU fight could be about to get really interesting with 'aggressive' Radeon RX 9000 pricing amidst RTX 5090 stock woes
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Could IonQ Become the Next Nvidia?
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There's still plenty of room to get in on the Nvidia growth story, but investors also are looking to another innovative market that could result in a similar boom, and that's quantum computing. In fact, quantum company IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), which has seen its stock price soar more than 400% over the past year, recently suggested it could become the Nvidia of quantum computing. Can this quantum player potentially follow in AI superstar Nvidia's footsteps? AI involves the training of large language models to solve complex problems. Eventually, software with greater and greater capabilities in these areas can be set to work in the form of AI agents that will make companies more efficient and help them save money. And AI can be applied in many ways to specifically advance certain industries -- for example, in healthcare, it can find better drug candidate more quickly. This AI revolution is happening now, with technology that supports those goals. 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Is Bitcoin the new ‘Big Tech' stock?
Bitcoin has shed its outsider status and now moves in sync with big tech stocks — especially during 'risk-on' market conditions. The rise of spot Bitcoin ETFs and broader institutional adoption have blurred the lines between crypto and traditional finance, making Bitcoin more sensitive to interest rates, liquidity and global risk sentiment. Despite early comparisons to gold, Bitcoin hasn't held up well during times of crisis. While it's becoming more integrated into the financial system, Bitcoin's price is still largely driven by liquidity and belief — not fundamentals. Bitcoin used to be an outsider in the financial markets — unpredictable, uncorrelated and immune to Wall Street's mood swings. But lately? Bitcoin is moving like a tech stock — rising with the Nasdaq, falling when risk is off. From April 1 to April 8, as President Donald Trump announced new tariffs, Bitcoin plunged from $85,487 to $76,198. 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Even riskier debt markets, like high-yield bonds, started moving in tandem with Bitcoin. Meanwhile, its correlation with gold — supposedly its analog cousin — moved from a negative to a positive but stayed low, at 0.15. Gold has continued to be less risky than Bitcoin, as analysts at J.P. Morgan noted in the company's mid-year outlook report. Instead of behaving like a safe haven or hedge, Bitcoin in the post-COVID era is acting like a high-beta tech stock: Volatile, reactive and deeply tied to investor sentiment. The COVID-era monetary response flooded markets with cheap money. Rate cuts and trillions in fiscal stimulus lit a fire under everything from stocks to crypto. Investors, flush with cash and stuck at home, piled into meme stocks, growth stocks and crypto. Bitcoin surged. So did Tesla. So did Ethereum. So did GameStop (GME). But when inflation spiked in 2022 and the Federal Reserve tightened the belt by raising interest rates, both stocks and Bitcoin fell together. 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That created overlap between fiat-based financial systems and crypto. 'Passive strategies, algorithmic trading and cross-asset portfolio models often bundle them together as 'innovation beta' or macro-levered growth proxies,' says Gannatti. The launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024 only blurred the lines between traditional finance and cryptocurrency further. Investors no longer need to fuss with crypto wallets or exchanges — they can buy Bitcoin like a stock, even in their IRA, which opens the door to a broader audience. It didn't take long for investors to pile into Bitcoin ETFs. More than a dozen new funds drew $36 billion in capital in 2024 alone, pushing total assets north of $110 billion. 'This makes Bitcoin more sensitive to macro conditions — liquidity, rates and geopolitical stress — but also more influenced by traditional investor behavior, including rotations and rebalancing,' says Gannatti. Policy momentum is also pushing Bitcoin further into the mainstream. One of the clearest examples is Trump's return to the White House. He's the first pro-Bitcoin president, and a second Trump term is expected to create a friendlier regulatory environment. It's a stunning turnaround. Bitcoin was launched in 2009 as a decentralized alternative to the traditional financial system in the wake of the Great Recession. Its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, likely never envisioned it gaining legitimacy under the leadership of a U.S. president. The new administration is already dialing back anti-crypto policies, starting with the SEC's repeal of SAB 121. That change lets banks hold Bitcoin and other digital assets, potentially unlocking a flood of institutional money and pulling Bitcoin deeper into regulated markets. On the global stage, Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) is opening the doors to institutional players. The 'digital gold' narrative hasn't held up under stress. During the March 2020 crash, Bitcoin lost half its value in just a few days. Investors wanted dollars, not digital coins. 'Bitcoin's not reliable as a short-term hedge against equity drawdowns,' says Gannatti. 'During market stress, Bitcoin often behaves like a risk asset, not a safe haven.' That held true recently, too. When Trump's tariff announcement triggered a global flight to safety, gold rallied while both the Nasdaq and Bitcoin dropped double digits. Capital flowed out of speculative assets and into traditional hedges, like gold. Bitcoin — and tech stocks — didn't recover until later. Bitcoin's transformation isn't unique. The behavior of assets can — and does — change when the macroeconomic backdrop shifts. Perhaps one of the best examples is dot-com era tech stocks. In the 1990s, early internet companies were wildly speculative — overly optimistic valuations, zero profits and unpredictable swings. The bubble burst in March 2000. The Nasdaq lost 77 percent of its value over the next two years, wiping out many of the over-hyped internet companies that never turned a profit. But over time, the survivors matured into fundamentally sound businesses, such as Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL). As valuation models improved, so did pricing stability. Bitcoin might be on a similar path. 'Bitcoin has repeatedly shown that it is here for the long term,' says Joan Nix, an economics professor at Queens College in New York. 'As greater institutional adoption occurs and liquidity increases in the crypto world, Bitcoin is in a good position to emerge as a winner, like Amazon and eBay did after the tech boom bust in the late 1990s.' Part of the confusion around Bitcoin's behavior is that nobody quite knows how to value it — or even how to categorize it. Is it a currency? A commodity? A decentralized tech protocol? Unlike stocks, Bitcoin doesn't produce cash flow. Unlike bonds, it doesn't pay interest. And unlike commodities, its utility is purely digital. That makes traditional valuation models mostly useless. Some researchers have tried tweaking existing frameworks to help retail investors gauge Bitcoin's value. But none of these frameworks fully explain its behavior. Some asset managers now use a 'mosaic' approach — blending models based on adoption curves, network effects and even energy consumption (like hash rate). Still, none of them work perfectly, making it even more difficult to predict what the price of Bitcoin might do next. 'While Bitcoin trades as a risky asset, the jury is still out on whether traditional asset pricing models can adequately account for its volatility,' says Nix. Some analysts think the high correlation between Bitcoin and tech stocks is here to stay. As long as it's treated as a risk asset by institutional players, Bitcoin will likely continue moving with the broader market. If that's the case, retail investors may be wise to pay more attention to external drivers impacting tech stocks — such as interest rates and inflation — and give less credence to crypto-specific catalysts, like halving cycles, regulatory developments and network upgrades. But others argue the correlation might be morphing. In 2025, Bitcoin's price still moves in sync with Big Tech sometimes, but they're not rising and falling for the same reasons anymore, says Gannatti. When the overall market is in a 'risk-on' mood — meaning investors feel confident and are willing to take more risks — Bitcoin and tech stocks tend to move together. 'But when equity markets rotate based on sector earnings, Bitcoin often decouples,' says Gannatti. What's happening in 2025 shows how the market has evolved. Big Tech's gains are mostly about profits. Bitcoin's gains are more about investor beliefs and how much money is sloshing around in the system. 'While short bursts of correlation may still appear, Bitcoin's narrative is becoming more distinct,' says Gannatti. So maybe Bitcoin hasn't fully surrendered its unique identity — but it's still more entangled with global finance than ever before. That's why experts like Nix caution investors against treating Bitcoin as anything but volatile. 'At this stage in its evolution, where there is little consensus over what crypto-specific drivers will explain its long-term performance, it's a speculative risk asset,' says Nix. 'Retail investors should be careful about allocating anything but a small percentage of their retirement portfolios to it.' Checking in with a financial advisor can be a good move, too. For now, Bitcoin is acting like a high-volatility, high-beta tech stock. It rises when investors' risk appetite is high and falls when macroeconomic headwinds reemerge. Since 2020, its correlation with stocks has spiked and its behavior has shifted from 'digital gold' to 'digital Nasdaq.' But that might not last forever. Similar to how tech stocks evolved from dot-com chaos to blue-chip companies, Bitcoin could chart its own path. Its unique traits — fixed supply, decentralized design, long-term bullish investors — could put Bitcoin back into a class of its own as the market matures. For now, though, anyone treating Bitcoin as a hedge or safe haven is likely to be disappointed. It tends to ride the same roller coaster as Big Tech — and it's not showing signs of stepping off anytime soon. Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. In addition, investors are advised that past investment product performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation. 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Chinese tech companies prepare for AI future without Nvidia, FT reports
(Reuters) -China's biggest technology companies have begun the process of switching to homegrown chips as they contend with a dwindling stockpile of Nvidia processors and tightening United States export controls, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are among those starting to test alternative semiconductors to meet growing domestic demand for AI, the report said, citing industry executives. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
