AMD Is Turning into an AI Chip Firm Like Nvidia

AMD simply introduced its revenue for the second quarter of 2024 at present, and essentially the most placing factor is that this: Nearly half of the corporate’s gross sales now come from knowledge heart merchandise, not from chips for private computer systems, not from recreation consoles, not from embedded chips for business or autos.

The corporate’s knowledge heart enterprise has doubled in a 12 months, and the quarter’s development was pushed largely by one chip: AMD’s Intuition MI300 accelerator, which competes with Nvidia’s accelerator. the notorious H100 AI chipAMD’s chip gross sales topped $1 billion within the quarter, larger than his earlier milestone was $1 billion in complete since its debut in December 2023. (AMD says its Epyc server processors have additionally contributed.)

It appears like AMD is following the identical path as Nvidia itself, which made such phenomenal earnings from the Nvidia H100 that Now it would launch new AI chips yearlyaccelerating all of its analysis and growth to remain forward, focusing its enterprise on a product that’s so well-liked it will probably’t be stocked on cabinets.

AMD additionally plans to launch new AI chips yearly, with the MI325X due within the fourth quarter of this 12 months, the MI350 in 2025, and the MI400 deliberate for 2026, the corporate reiterated in its earnings report at present. Su stated the MI350 ought to be “very aggressive.” with Blackwell from Nvidiawhich was unveiled in March this 12 months because the “world’s strongest chip” for synthetic intelligence and lately began providing samples to clients.

As for at present’s MI300, Su says she’s nonetheless promoting as a lot as AMD could make. Regardless of provide chain enhancements, “provide will stay restricted till 2025.”

Nvidia has an enormous benefit over AMD, and regardless of doubling this 12 months, AMD’s knowledge heart enterprise is a fraction of Nvidia’s – $2.8 billion per quarter versus $2.8 billion per quarter. $22.6 billion per quarter for Nvidiawhich additionally simply posted file leads to the information heart area.

What does all this imply for PC avid gamers and others in search of new chips? It’s attainable {that a} rising tide lifts all boats — each new GPU structure funded by AI {dollars} could be repurposed for different duties, delivering sooner enhancements than earlier than. However in 2024, not less than, the fervor of AI appears to imply no new GPUs for avid gamers.

Nonetheless, AMD’s private pc CPU and GPU enterprise grew, not declined, final quarter. Ryzen processors grew 49 % 12 months over 12 months and have been up barely quarter over quarter, and whereas weak PlayStation and Xbox gross sales led to a 59 % decline in gaming income, AMD stated its Radeon 6000 GPUs really elevated gross sales 12 months over 12 months.