Microsoft is teaming up with AMD to enter the artificial intelligence (AI) chips market. Microsoft will provide financial support to AMD, while also working on its own AI processor called Athena. Both companies want to offer an alternative to NVIDIA, which currently dominates the AI chip market. NVIDIA is the biggest provider of GPUs to Microsoft, and its VMs power Microsoft’s Generative AI projects and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Microsoft’s partnership with AMD to develop AI chips is part of a larger plan by Microsoft to deepen its relationship with chipmakers and embrace the Generative AI wave. AMD’s shares rose over 6.5% after the announcement. However, Microsoft denied that AMD is involved in the development of its Athena processor, despite already spending over $2 billion on chip development. This denial is unusual given the announced partnership.
Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, said that they are very excited about their opportunity in AI and that it is their top priority. She also stated that they are in the early stages of the AI computing era and that its adoption and growth are faster than any other technology in recent history.
