Microsoft is reportedly helping AMD establish its footprint in AI chipmaking while there are also rumors that AMD is helping the former in developing its in-house AI accelerator Athena.
Bloomberg reports that Microsoft is working with AMD to help it expand into AI processors (report here, paywalled). Microsoft is reportedly providing engineering resources to support AMD’s foray into the currently Nvidia-dominated market of providing data center chips on which companies train their LLMs.
The report also claims that AMD is helping Microsoft for its own in-house chips codenamed Athena. For this, hundreds of Microsoft employees are working on this project, with the company having spent over $2 billion in the development.
Microsoft denies any involvement of AMD with Athena (The Verge).
Notably, AMD is also launching its MI300 superchip later this year which will, apart from being used in the world’s then-fastest supercomputer El Capitan, will mark AMD’s entry into the generative AI training business.
Combining the $11 billion investment into OpenAI and the current $2 investment into silicon hardware led by former Intel exec Rani Borkar means Microsoft is going all-in on AI.
