This year has been a busy one for the earliest part of this decade. WIRED Say that AMD CEO Lisa Su The “out for Nvidia’s blood.” The American chipmaker is still small compared to the juggernaut that is Nvidia—their market caps are $353 billion and $4.4 trillion, respectively—but Su’s company is gaining steam. When Su spoke at WIRED’s Big Interview in San Francisco today, she was aiming for something else: the AI bubble.
Lauren Goode, senior WIRED writer and WIRED Senior reporter, was asked by WIRED Senior Writer Lauren Goode whether the tech industry has an AI bubble. Her response? “emphatically, from my perspective, no.” Su stated that the AI industry will need scores of AMD chips. Fears of a similar bubble are unfounded. “somewhat overstated.”
Su is a woman of boldness. In the four years since she was appointed AMD CEO, her company has seen its market value increase from $200 billion to $300. Su’s bets are on AI computing power and the necessary data centers.
AMD has many obstacles ahead of it. The first is the building of data centers, while another hurdle is to get its chips in as many people’s hands as possible. Goode inquired about the sale of chips in China during the conversation. She confirmed AMD’s intention to resume shipping MI308 to China will be subject to a tax of 15 percent imposed by the Trump Administration. Previously, the US had halted the sale of these chips to China. However, the government began reviewing the applications over the summer. AMD stated earlier this year the US export restrictions would cost them approximately $800,000,000.
AMD made a huge deal OpenAI will use AMD Instinct GPUs for 6 gigawatts in the next few years. AMD allowed OpenAI to purchase 160 million shares for just a penny a share as part of this deal. Effectively, this gives OpenAI a 10-percent stake in AMD. First gigawatts are expected to be deployed in the second quarter of 2019.
AMD has made several large bets on AI data centres to support artificial intelligence. Su isn’t worried about Nvidia competition or that of Google and Amazon who have chip-making plans. “When I look at the landscape, what keeps me up at night is ‘How do we move faster when it comes to innovation?'” Su said.
Su is convinced that AI technology has just begun and she wants her company to be prepared to supply chips in the future. “As good as the models are today,” “She says” “the next one will be better.” AI has a lot of potential. “there’s not a reason not to keep pushing that technology” In the future.
