# AMD — AI news & analysis

AMD is Nvidia's main rival in AI accelerators, supplying Instinct GPUs to large AI deployments.

- [Microsoft launches Nvidia RTX Spark AI PCs and agent-focused Windows 11](https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/microsoft-launches-nvidia-rtx-spark-ai-pcs-and-agent-focused-windows-11-cba796) (2026-10-07, TechCrunch): Microsoft detailed the Surface Laptop Ultra, powered by Nvidia's Arm-based RTX Spark chip, starting at $2,599 and shipping October 16. A $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box ships in November. Windows gains 'Hybrid Intelligence' features letting Copilot use local files to take actions.
- [OpenAI pairs its Jalapeño AI chips with AMD EPYC Turin hosts](https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/openai-pairs-its-jalapeno-ai-chips-with-amd-epyc-turin-hosts-a8d567) (2026-10-02, Tom's Hardware): OpenAI is deploying rack-scale systems of its in-house Jalapeño ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) with AMD EPYC 'Turin' CPUs as host processors. It did not choose newer agent-oriented chips such as Arm's AGI or Nvidia's Vera.
- [Applied Materials to invest $5B in India chip research over decade](https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/applied-materials-to-invest-5b-in-india-chip-research-over-decade-fc7859) (2026-09-18, Data Center Dynamics): Applied Materials plans to invest $5 billion in India over the next decade to expand its chip ambitions, including a new 140-acre research park.
- [AMD claims EPYC 'Venice' CPUs sharply beat Nvidia's Vera](https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/amd-claims-epyc-venice-cpus-sharply-beat-nvidia-s-vera-a64bb6) (2026-09-18, Tom's Hardware): AMD released first official benchmarks for its upcoming EPYC 'Venice' server CPUs, claiming its 256-core chip is more than twice as fast as Nvidia's Vera and its 96-core model is 20% faster per-core. These are AMD's own figures, ahead of independent verification.
- [China's Biren posts 2,000% revenue growth as Nvidia, AMD exit market](https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/china-s-biren-posts-2-000-revenue-growth-as-nvidia-amd-exit-market-483f68) (2026-09-10, Tom's Hardware): Chinese AI accelerator maker Biren Technology reported roughly 2,000% year-over-year revenue growth in the first half of 2026. The surge coincides with Nvidia and AMD effectively exiting the Chinese market under US export controls.
- [AMD unveils workstation with dual MI350P AI accelerators](https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/amd-unveils-workstation-with-dual-mi350p-ai-accelerators-38d28d) (2026-09-04, Tom's Hardware): AMD's new Threadripper Halo Station pairs a 96-core Zen 5 Threadripper CPU with dual liquid-cooled MI350P accelerators (expandable to four) and 2TB of DDR5 memory. AMD says the system can run trillion-parameter models locally.
- [Report compares pricing and capacity across five GPU clouds](https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/report-compares-pricing-and-capacity-across-five-gpu-clouds-e3e92b) (2026-08-21, MarkTechPost): A new analysis compares CoreWeave, Nebius, Lambda, Crusoe, and Groq on published GPU rental pricing, contracted power capacity, and Q2 2026 financials. Nebius has the lowest H100 rate and the only published B300 price, Lambda has the cheapest B200, Crusoe is the only one offering AMD chips, and CoreWeave charges a 10-15% premium as the sole provider with a Platinum ClusterMAX rating. Figures are dated August 21, 2026.

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Published by Parallel Quant — https://www.parallelquant.com