AMD Debuts AI Chips on PCs for Business, Gaming

AMD is bringing its lucrative AI chips to business laptops and computers as it tries to compete against NVIDIA and Intel in the AI PC race.

The semiconductor manufacturer announced on Tuesday that it will soon roll out the Ryzen PRO 8040 and PRO 8000 Series, its latest AI processing built to "deliver cutting-edge performance with low power consumption."

Both chips are developed with 4-nanometer technology, allowing users to run large language models on the devices rather than redirecting them through a separate cloud service.

The AI chips will be in addition to the Ryzen 9 PRO 8945HS model that is intended for resource-heavy applications and processes like technical computing, multimedia content creation, 3D rendering, video encoding, and photo editing.

The AI chips are expected to become available in the second quarter of 2024 along with the release of the newest business laptops and desktops from HP and Lenovo.

AMD Competes with NVIDIA, Intel on AI Chips Race

The announcement of the new Ryzen processors marks AMD's next step towards the AI PC race with NVIDIA and Intel.

With the US government increasing its pledged investment into the semiconductor industry in the country, AMD has been ramping up its production process to increase its arsenal to respond to the growing demand for the technology.

So far, the Santa Clara-based chipmaker has been attracting tech businesses for its much cheaper AI chips.

Business Turn to AMD for More Affordable AI Chips

The strategy to roll out much more affordable chips is in response to more companies turning to generative AI and learning machines to automate their operations but were rebuked for the costly price tags NVIDIA puts on its products.

While producing their in-house AI chips might be a better alternative in the long run, many companies and startups do not have the resources and time to develop the technology basically from scratch.

Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla have already committed to purchasing more AMD AI chips to build their latest LLMs and cloud services.