Nvidia and AMD square off in fight to take control of AI

Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s chiefs showcased new generations of the chips powering the global boom in AI development, deepening a rivalry that may decide the direction of artificial intelligence design and adoption.

Jensen Huang and Lisa Su — both born in Taiwan and now local celebrities for leading U.S. tech powerhouses — employed different tacks in conveying their expertise during back-to-back shows at the world’s largest computing conference this week in Taipei. 

Nvidia’s CEO repeatedly voiced his US$2.7 trillion company’s dominance in the accelerators that OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. rely on to build generative AI services like ChatGPT. Huang went as far as to tease a chip envisioned for 2026 he dubbed Rubin — after Vera Rubin, the American woman who helped discover dark matter. The chip, which will succeed the Blackwell family, will be key to sustaining its runaway leadership. 

While Huang headlined much of his own two-hour presentation on Sunday, AMD’s Su chose to make hers more of a team effort. She brought out a stream of big-name partners from HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores to Lenovo Group Ltd.’s Luca Rossi to convey the company’s focus on designing neural processors — a type of chip that runs AI services directly from laptops. At one point during her Computex address, Asustek Computer Inc. Chairman Jonney Shih called her “the pride of Taiwan” — a characterization often associated with Huang of Nvidia, whose market valuation is now about 10 times that of AMD’s.