Erinome: Hello dear friends! Welcome to our tech talk today. You know, the AI world has been super busy lately. Big news about AMD and OpenAI—have you heard?
Enceladus: Oh! AMD and OpenAI? I know AMD makes computer chips, right? What’s the big deal this time?
Erinome: Wow, it’s a huge cooperation! They announced a multi-year deal. OpenAI will use AMD’s GPUs, and the total power is 6 billion watts! Can you believe that?
Enceladus: 6 billion watts? That sounds really big! When will they start?
Erinome: They said the first part, 1 billion watts, will start in the second half of 2026. They’ll use AMD’s Instinct MI450 GPUs first. Oh, and AMD’s stock price jumped over 20% after this news!
Enceladus: Oh no, that’s a big jump! But wait, didn’t OpenAI just work with Nvidia? I remember a 100 billion dollar deal with Nvidia before.
Erinome: Right! You know that? OpenAI wants to “diversify” its AI computer infrastructure. Because right now, AI chips are hard to get worldwide. So they’re working with many companies—Nvidia, AMD, GCP, Coreweave… Not putting all eggs in one basket, I guess.
Enceladus: Smart move! So why AMD? I thought Nvidia is the king of AI chips.
Erinome: AMD is catching up! Let me tell you about AMD’s story. It started in 1969 in California, making CPUs and GPUs. For a long time, it was like Intel’s “second supplier.” But from 2006 to 2014, it was really sad—bad financials, market share dropping.
Enceladus: Oh, that’s tough. When did it get better?
Erinome: In 2014, Dr. Lisa Su became CEO. She changed everything! They made Ryzen CPUs for PCs, EPYC for data centers. Then bought Xilinx for FPGAs. Now AMD is the “second leader” in high-performance computing, not a “small player” anymore!
Enceladus: Wow, Lisa Su is amazing! So this cooperation with OpenAI is a big step for AMD?
Erinome: Totally! And there’s more—OpenAI might buy up to 160 million AMD shares, almost 10% of AMD. That’s a deep partnership, right?
Enceladus: Oh right! So they’re not just buying chips, but maybe becoming part owners? That’s serious.
Erinome: Yep. And AMD will help OpenAI build more computing centers with money too. Not just hardware, but cash support.
Enceladus: Now I get why AMD’s stock went up 20%! Investors are excited. But wait, what about China? The news mentioned “domestic suppliers” for AMD. Who are they?
Erinome: Oh, good question! Many Chinese companies work with AMD. Like Tongfu Microelectronics (通富微电). They do packaging and testing for AMD—over 80% of AMD’s orders! In the first half of 2025, AMD bought 1 billion dollars from them.
Enceladus: 80%? That’s a lot! Any others?
Erinome: Sheng Hong Technology (胜宏科技) makes PCB boards for AMD’s AI servers and graphics cards. They have 80% of the PCB orders for AMD’s next EPYC CPUs.
Enceladus: PCB boards? Like the green circuit boards inside computers?
Erinome: Exactly! And Huadian Co., Ltd. (沪电股份) makes server motherboards for AMD’s EPYC platforms. Shennan Circuit (深南电路) too. They all got AMD’s certification.
Enceladus: So many! What about散热 (sàn rè) parts? You know, high-power chips get hot.
Erinome: Oh right! Lingyi Zhiyao (领益智造) started supplying AMD in early 2025. They make cooling modules with “feather copper bionic structure” nano tech. Cool, right?
Enceladus: Haha, “feather copper” sounds light but strong! Any companies helping sell AMD’s products in China?
Erinome: Yes! China Electronics Port (中电港) and Xiangnong Xinchuang (香农芯创) are AMD’s main distributors in China. They sell data center CPUs and GPUs to meet local demand.
Enceladus: So AMD’s supply chain in China is really important. Now, back to AI chips—Nvidia is still the big boss, right?
Erinome: For sure. Nvidia controls over 70% of the AI chip market. Their top chips cost 60,000 US dollars each! They’ll release Vera Rubin chips next year, which are 2x faster than now.
Enceladus: Then why does OpenAI work with AMD? Just to have more suppliers?
Erinome: Maybe! OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said, “Getting enough computing power is really hard now.” They need more to train big AI models. So working with AMD and Nvidia helps them get enough chips.
Enceladus: Oh, I see. And AMD wants to compete with Nvidia. This cooperation helps AMD grow in AI chips.
Erinome: Exactly! It’s a win-win. But some people worry—all these companies are spending so much on AI infrastructure. Like, OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Meta… They’ll spend over 325 billion dollars on data centers by the end of this year!
Enceladus: 325 billion? That’s more than building railways in the 19th century! Could there be a bubble?
Erinome: Maybe. Some say it’s like the railway boom or building the electric grid—huge investment, but we don’t know if it’s too much. But for now, AI is growing fast, so they need the infrastructure.
Enceladus: What about other competitors? Are there more companies making AI chips?
