AMD Predicts Artificial Intelligence to be a Major Force in Computing
The CEO of chip giant AMD stated on Thursday in Taiwan, the leading producer of semiconductors, that AI will be the dominant mega-trend in the global computing industry.
California-based Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is one of the world’s largest chip suppliers – rivaling giants Intel and Nvidia – and their processors are used in everything from game consoles and laptops to large servers.
Over the past year, tech companies have shifted resources to developing chips with the processing power for generative AI — which crunches complex content in seconds — after seeing the popularity of products like ChatGPT.
“The innovation opportunities ahead of us are truly enormous, and the computing industry is changing very quickly,” said Lisa Su, CEO of AMD in Taiwan, upon receiving an honorary doctorate from Hsinchu City University.
“Artificial intelligence is really the defining megatrend for the next 10 years,” he said, adding that generative AI has reshaped how industry players view the technology’s possibilities.
“Artificial intelligence affects every product, every service, every business in the world, and the technology is actually advancing faster than anything ever before,” Su said in a speech to the university.
As a chip design foundry, AMD outsources its microchip design production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), headquartered in Hsinchu.
The Taiwanese chip-making giant controls half of the world’s production of silicon wafers, which are used to power everything from drip coffee makers to cars and missiles.
Unlike AMD’s chief, TSMC chairman Mark Liu cautioned investors against their expectations of a chip boom fueled by generative AI.
“The short-term frenzy around AI demand really cannot be extrapolated to the long term,” Liu told shareholders on a conference call Thursday, held around the same time as the university ceremony attended by Su.
“We also cannot predict for the near future, i.e. next year, how the sudden demand will continue or level off.”
TSMC reported a 23 percent drop in second-quarter net income to about $5.85 billion.
“Our business in the second quarter was impacted by the overall global economic environment, which dampened end-market demand and led to continued inventory adjustment by customers,” said Wendell Huang, TSMC’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.
The company also announced that its long-awaited Arizona plant – the first in the United States – has been delayed due to “insufficient skilled labor” and the start of production will be pushed back to 2025, Liu said.
