AMD announces Helios AI rack system to compete with Nvidia

In short: AMD introduced its Helios AI rack system and says it will start shipping to customers later this year.

What happened

AMD used its Advancing AI conference in San Francisco to highlight a new product called Helios. Helios is a “rack-scale” AI system, which means it bundles many powerful chips into one ready-to-install unit for data centers (think of it like a pre-built wall of computers that work together).

AMD CEO Lisa Su said Helios is designed for the biggest AI labs that need huge amounts of computing power to train and run advanced AI models. The company said the system is meant to be deployed at very large power levels, including “gigawatt-scale,” which signals extremely large data center builds.

AMD also pointed to an early customer list that includes Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Oracle, and Anthropic. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company plans to expand its Azure data center infrastructure using Helios. AMD and Anthropic also announced a partnership to deploy up to two gigawatts of AMD GPUs, which are chips often used for AI because they can handle many calculations at once.

Separately, AMD introduced a new data center CPU called Venice-X, which is expected to launch in 2027.

Why it matters

Most everyday AI services, like chatbots and image generators, run in data centers, and those data centers need massive computing hardware. Nvidia has long led this market with its own rack-style systems. If AMD can win more customers with Helios, it could change who supplies the “engine room” hardware that powers popular AI tools and services.

Source: TechCrunch AI