Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses.
The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday.
Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company struggles to hang on to its eroding dominance over chips for PCs. Commercial and gaming PCs typically are more profitable areas of the market requiring higher-priced components.
Photo: Reuters
AMD said its new Ryzen AI Max series of processors would deliver the highest level of performance available in premium thin and light notebooks.
The chips run AI workloads as much as 90 percent faster than their predecessors, it said.
AMD is also bringing out new 9000 series desktop computer processors, which it said would extend the company’s leadership in that area. The 9900X3D is a chip with 16 processor cores that can run as fast as 5.7 gigahertz, it said.
AMD, Intel and would-be rival Qualcomm Inc are announcing new laptop and desktop parts at the show, arguing their respective technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads. The chipmakers, and computer manufacturers, believe the market for PCs would be revived by the capability of the machines to run more tasks with AI.
Qualcomm’s new chips for AI PCs, the Snapdragon X Platform, cost as little as US$600 and consist of an 8-core Oryon central processor, a graphics component and dedicated AI chip. The new product would run Microsoft Corp’s Copilot+ software, Qualcomm said on Monday.
PC makers including Dell and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) are to offer laptops based on the new product in “early 2025,” the chipmaker said.
The chips join a range of more powerful and pricey components offered by Qualcomm — the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus. A key element of the company’s pitch is the extended battery life offered by machines based on its chips.
Qualcomm said its chips have always been designed for small, battery-powered devices, making them more efficient than the scaled-down desktop parts offered by its more established rivals.
Intel earlier on Monday announced new chips that it claims seize back battery life. Qualcomm disputes that, saying its chips are able to keep working at full power even when laptops are unplugged, while machines running rival processors have to be throttled back.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
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