On October 10, AMD announced that it has signed the acquisition of open source artificial intelligence software startup Nod..AI's final agreement, and said the move would expand the company's open AI software capabilities.。

According to the company's official website, Nod.AI joining AMD will bring an experienced team that has developed industry-leading software technologies to accelerate the deployment of optimized AI solutions for AMD Instinct ™ data center accelerators, Ryzen ™ AI processors, EPYC ™ processors, Versal ™ SoCs, and Radeon ™ GPUs。

According to AMD, the agreement is highly compatible with AMD's AI growth strategy centered on an open software ecosystem that lowers customer barriers to entry through development tools, libraries and models.。

Vamsi Boppana, senior vice president of AMD's artificial intelligence division, said: "The acquisition of Nod.AI is expected to significantly enhance our ability to provide AI customers with open software, allowing them to easily deploy high-performance AI models tuned for AMD hardware.。"

Boppana added: "The talented Nod.The addition of the AI team accelerates our ability to advance open source compiler technology and implement portable, high-performance AI solutions across the AMD portfolio。Now, Nod..AI technology has been widely deployed in the cloud, edge and various endpoint devices。"

Nod.AI was founded in 2013 and has received support from investors such as 8Square Capital, Atlantic Bridge, Pointguard Ventures and Walden International.。All the while, Nod.AI provides optimized AI solutions for top hyperscale enterprises, enterprises and startups。The company said being acquired by AMD would allow its products to be used by a larger global customer base.。

AMD did not disclose the amount of the acquisition, but according to PitchBook, Nod.AI has previously raised about $36.5 million。

Sword refers to Avida

Since the end of last year, artificial intelligence has once again ignited the global enthusiasm for science and technology, the "cornerstone" of AI - chips have become the focus of competition among major technology companies.。Chip manufacturers such as Nvidia and AMD are even more profitable.。

But in the field of chip manufacturing, Nvidia is still a well-deserved "big brother."。It is reported that more than 80% of the world's most suitable chips for running AI applications are "monopolized" by Nvidia.。Nvidia's best AI chips will be sold out by 2024.。It can be said that Nvidia has built a "moat" in the chip industry by virtue of its advantages, and its position has been difficult to shake.。

But the rapid development of artificial intelligence, so that other chip manufacturers also want to get a piece of the pie。And AMD is one of the major forces that is considered to be expected to challenge Nvidia。

AMD CEO Jifeng Su said publicly in September: "When the market is growing so fast, I don't believe in moats.。"

Su Zifeng said: "The next 10 years will be different from the past 10 years, because it is related to the way artificial intelligence is developed... and the benefit of open source is that no one company has all the ideas。So the more we can bring the ecosystem together, the more we can leverage developers who are really, really smart and want to accelerate AI。"

For AMD, rapidly growing its AI capabilities is a priority。AMD President Victor Peng said in an interview that the company will achieve this through internal investment and external acquisitions.。When asked if the company plans to strengthen it with additional acquisitions, Peng said: "We are always looking for。"

Peng said AMD created its AI division earlier this year to buy Nod..ai。The team employs about 1,500 engineers (the vast majority of whom are software-related)。AMD plans to continue expanding its team, hiring another 300 engineers this year and adding more personnel in 2024.。

Nod.AI's technology will make it easier for AMD to deploy AI models tuned for AMD chips。Previously, Nod.AI sells its technology to large data center operators and other customers。

Put Nod.AI income pocket is the company's second acquisition in the past few months。In August this year, AMD announced the acquisition of artificial intelligence software company Mipsology。Founded in 2015, Mipsology has a research and development team of about 30 people in France and an office in California.。Mipsology is also a long-term partner of AMD and has previously been developing AI inference and optimization solutions and tools for AMD.。

Be confident or think highly of yourself?

Although AMD has been recognized by many people in the market, some organizations believe that AMD is currently overvalued.。

On October 5, Baird analysts issued an updated report on AMD。In the report, analysts slashed their 2024 forecast for the company, citing a lower revenue outlook for the U.S. chipmaker's data center business.。

Analysts also slashed AMD's price target to $125 from $170 and said they would postpone forecasts for AMD to take "meaningful" market share in generative artificial intelligence.。

Meanwhile, Baird analysts have raised some questions about AMD's upcoming MI300 AI chip plans to expand capacity in the fourth quarter.。In August, AMD said customer interest in the MI300 was "very high."。

Although AMD is seen as a potential competitor to Nvidia in the race to produce AI semiconductors, Nvidia is by far the first and only chipmaker to be valued at more than a trillion dollars.。Analysts fear AMD's AI strategy may be "too ambitious"。

To date, the company has had no successful chip designs other than supercomputing applications and currently lacks a mature software ecosystem, analysts note.。

In any case, the market is still recognized AMD has a certain strength。But whether AMD can grab more market share from Nvidia in the future depends on the company's next performance.。