By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 26th, 2024
The longstanding partnership between Microsoft and AMD has been a strategic alliance that has shaped the tech industry in various ways.
A recent report has revealed that shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD) rose nearly 5% on Thursday following comments from Kevin Scott, the Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) about the chipmaker’s efforts to strengthen its position in AI, an arena long dominated by Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA).
With AMD’s stock up approximately 60% this year, investors are keeping a close eye on this tech powerhouse.
Microsoft’s Endorsement
“They’re making increasingly compelling GPU offerings that I think are going to become more and more important to the marketplace in the coming years,” Scott says while speaking at the Code Conference in Dana Point, California, on Wednesday.
This endorsement from a tech giant like Microsoft lends credibility to AMD’s AI initiatives and suggests that the company may be on the cusp of a breakthrough. Notably, AMD has been diligently working to bolster its presence in the AI sector.
In June, the company announced its intention to begin sampling the MI300X chip during the third quarter of the year. Unlike traditional GPUs, these chips were meticulously designed with AI models in mind, reflecting AMD’s commitment to delivering tailored solutions for the AI market.
Meanwhile, Nvidia has long been synonymous with AI prowess. The company’s GPUs have been instrumental in powering AI workloads, driving Nvidia’s meteoric rise. So far this year, Nvidia’s shares have nearly tripled, an impressive feat that further cements its position as an industry leader.
The surge in demand for AI applications, particularly those reliant on deep learning models, has created a need for exceptionally powerful GPUs. Nvidia’s GPUs have risen to meet this challenge, and the company is confidently forecasting a staggering 170% year-over-year revenue growth in the current quarter, highlighting the immense demand for its products.
The Strong Microsoft-AMD Partnership
The longstanding partnership between Microsoft and AMD has been a strategic alliance that has shaped the tech industry in various ways. For years, Microsoft has relied on AMD’s cutting-edge technology to power various aspects of its business.
This partnership extends beyond conventional computing devices to encompass cloud services and gaming consoles. Notably, Microsoft has offered AMD GPUs to its Azure cloud customers, recognizing the value of AMD’s graphics processing units in handling diverse workloads, including AI and machine learning tasks.
Moreover, AMD chips have found their way into Microsoft’s computers and Xbox gaming consoles, further cementing this collaborative relationship. In May, AMD made headlines by announcing that Microsoft had begun offering a cloud networking service, drawing upon AMD’s Pensando products.
This development underscores AMD’s increasing relevance in the data center and cloud computing space, where the demand for high-performance chips is insatiable. Microsoft’s utilization of AMD’s Pensando products demonstrates its confidence in AMD’s capabilities to deliver innovative solutions for its cloud offerings.