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<\/p>\nDominic Daninger, vice president of engineering at Burnsville, Minn.-based systems integrator Nor-Tech, tells CRN that it\u2019s good to see AMD attacking the data center opportunity with its latest collaboration with Microsoft.<\/p>\n
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AMD said Monday that it expanded its collaboration with Microsoft in a deal that would see the chipmaker deploy its latest Helios AI rack-scale architecture and next-generation EPYC data center processors to Azure.<\/p>\n
As part of the deal, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft will deploy Helios to power \u201cfrontier model AI inference for Microsoft, its AI customers and support Azure AI services,\u201d the companies said. AMD and Microsoft both said that Azure will also add two new AMD EPYC CPU-powered VM series and broaden its deployment of Pensando data processing units (DPUs) to support Azure networking services. Santa Clara, Calif.-based AMD will begin shipping Helios to customers, including Microsoft, in the second half of 2026.<\/p>\n
Dominic Daninger, vice president of engineering at Burnsville, Minn.-based systems integrator Nor-Tech, told CRN that with more deployments of chips, \u201csometimes parts might be a little harder to get\u201d given the current global chip shortage. But it\u2019s good to see AMD attacking the data center opportunity, said Daninger, who praised AMD CEO Lisa Su\u2019s leadership. \u201cCompetition always breeds innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helios rack-scale architecture integrates AMD Instinct GPUs with EPYC Venice CPUs to deliver high-performance AI infrastructure. In AMD\u2019s quarterly earnings call in May, Su said that the company is \u201cseeing significant customer interest\u201d around Helios and AMD\u2019s Instinct MI450 data center AI accelerator chip. Su cited AMD\u2019s partnerships with OpenAI and Meta, saying those collaborations are \u201cgoing really well,\u201d according to a transcript of the call.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate the deep co-engineering that has gone on there,\u201d said Su at the time. \u201cBased on our current visibility, how those forecasts are coming in with all of our customers, we\u2019re actually seeing it above our initial plans that we had planned for 2027. I think the encouraging thing is we’re seeing a breadth of customers who are now very interested in deploying at significant scale, MI450 series.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Microsoft deal would significantly expand the availability of the Helios product to another technology powerhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur approach to AI infrastructure is designed to support the breadth of how AI systems are built and run,\u201d said Scott Guthrie, Microsoft\u2019s executive vice president of cloud and AI, in a blog post. \u201cWe closely work with industry innovators like AMD as well as our own purpose-built silicon and systems to provide customers with a comprehensive, open and heterogenous platform to achieve the best performance, cost and energy efficiency outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
An AMD spokesman declined to disclose additional details on the scale and the financial terms of the collaboration. A Microsoft spokesperson pointed CRN to Microsoft\u2019s blog post and AMD press release.<\/p>\n
Shares of AMD stock rose nearly 2 percent on Monday to $503.57.<\/p>\n