Advanced Micro Devices Monday unveiled Helios, its first rack-scale artificial intelligence system, as the chipmaker mounts its strongest challenge yet to Nvidia's dominance of the AI market, CNBC reports .
Microsoft said it will deploy Helios racks in its Azure data centers later this year, joining Meta Platforms, OpenAI, Oracle, and Tata Consultancy Services as early customers.
Financial terms and the amount of computing capacity Microsoft plans to purchase were not disclosed. Microsoft also plans to offer two new computing services powered by AMD's latest Venice processors.
"We are expanding the Azure infrastructure portfolio with AMD Helios to give customers the performance, scale and choice they need to build and run the next generation of AI applications," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
Helios combines AMD's graphics processors, central processors, networking technology, and software in a single rack-scale system. It is designed to compete with Nvidia's Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin platforms.
The system will support AI model inference for Microsoft and its customers, as well as other Azure AI services.
AMD data center chief Forrest Norrod said Helios is designed to deliver the "lowest cost per token" and improve customers' overall computing costs.
AMD did not disclose pricing.
Futurum Group estimates a Helios system will cost between $5 million and $5.5 million, compared with $3.5 million to $4 million for Nvidia's Vera Rubin system.
Nvidia controls more than 95% of the data center GPU market, while AMD holds about 4.5%, according to Futurum.
Futurum CEO Daniel Newman said AMD could eventually capture 20% to 25% of a market representing hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
Meta said in February it plans to deploy as much as 6 gigawatts of AMD computing capacity over time, beginning with 1 gigawatt using Helios racks later this year.
AMD shares (AMD) rose 4.82% in early trading Monday.
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