As AMD chases Nvidia, here's how it's positioning itself for the future of AI

By Emily Bary

AMD CEO Lisa Su delivers a CES keynote highlighting cost benefits, memory improvements, a shift toward real-world AI - and an insatiable demand for computing power

AMD's Lisa Su says the company's forthcoming Helios rack packs "game-changing" performance benefits.

Advanced Micro Devices looked to solidify its place in the artificial-intelligence ecosystem with a CES keynote that highlighted its next-generation chip lineup and its role in a world where computing hardware is still in short supply.

CEO Lisa Su on Monday night showed off the company's forthcoming MI455 chip, which she said had 70% more transistors than the current-generation MI355, as well as 400 gigabytes of "ultrafast" HMB4, a type of high-bandwidth memory.

She also talked up Helios, the company's open-rack solution due out later in 2026. Helios is "exactly on track to launch later this year," Su said, and she expects it to "set new a new benchmark for AI performance" once it rolls out. The rack-scale offering could deliver "game-changing" performance benefits that make it better suited for more advanced AI functions, like AI agents that can carry out tasks on a user's behalf.

See also: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers some good news for investors at CES

Nvidia (NVDA) dominates the market for AI hardware. And while AMD (AMD) was originally seen as the next logical option, now that's up for debate. Nvidia and AMD both make graphics processing units, but Broadcom (AVGO) designs application-specific integrated circuits in partnership with big AI players, and these have also found traction recently. Further, Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) works with Broadcom on those custom chips, which it calls tensor processing units, and some wonder if those will start generating external interest.

More from MarketWatch: Google rose to the top in the AI race. Here's what it'll take to stay there.

Su's keynote sought to establish AMD as both a partner of choice for key AI players and a necessary player in a world where demand for AI hardware still outstrips supply. "The demand for compute is growing faster than ever," she said.

Su brought on Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, remarking that "every time I see you, you tell me you need more compute."

Brockman said that as AI models have gotten more advanced, with people demanding more of them, that's driven up the company's computing needs. OpenAI, the ChatGPT creator, has been "tripling our compute every year for past couple years and tripling our revenue," he said. All the while, the company has experienced a "big fight internally over compute" because it can't access enough hardware to power all the features it wants to make.

Su also called on Luma AI CEO Amit Jain, noting that he's also wanted more computing power. He praised the company's ROCm open software stack as well as "some of the best total cost of ownership" - a reference to whether it can execute on AI efficiently.

Luma AI, which does video generation, is expanding its AMD partnership, and Jain said the MI455 chip will help enable "world-scale" offerings. Whereas AI was once known for things like writing emails, now models are helping to "simulate real physical processes in the world."

World Labs CEO Fei-Fei Li also took the stage to reinforce the point. "We can finally give machines something closer to human-level spatial intelligence," she said.

And while AMD's data-center chips are its best-known AI product, Su also spent some time highlighting the company's offerings for AI personal computers. "We saw the AI PC wave early and we invested," she said, announcing the new Ryzen 400 series of PC processors with performance and memory benefits over their predecessors. They're said to enable PCs that are better at multitasking and creative functions.

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-Emily Bary

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01-05-26 2313ET