AMD to Acquire Canadian Startup to Gain New Technologies for AI Chip Production

Advanced Micro Devices, which competes with Nvidia in the AI chip market, announced the acquisition of the Canadian startup Taalas, without disclosing the financial terms of the deal. Taalas’ technology is used in inference chips—the stage of AI processing where pre-trained models process user requests and generate responses.

The startup claims that by implementing AI models directly in specialized chips, its solutions operate faster, are less expensive, and consume less energy than existing software-based systems running on general-purpose processors. In a press release, AMD announced that Taalas technology will be included in its product roadmap in the form of components for server systems.

AMD is looking for ways to make its products competitive in the AI chip market, which is dominated by Nvidia, according to Bloomberg. AMD is currently the world’s second-largest manufacturer of graphics processing units (GPUs). These chips are particularly effective for developing AI applications because they can process massive amounts of data. As the industry shifts from training models to the practical use of AI services, demand is growing for alternative chips capable of ensuring that models operate as quickly and efficiently as possible, the agency explains.

On August 4, AMD reported a 50% year-over-year increase in revenue for the second quarter, though the figure was only slightly above market consensus. At the same time, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would no longer purchase AMD chips and would focus on Nvidia solutions. This triggered a 7% plunge in the chipmaker’s stock price in a single day on August 5. However, during trading on August 6, the stock rose 1.5% to $489.28.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor