As the AI and data center markets evolve rapidly, AMD is doubling down on its multi-front strategy to claim more territory. From rolling out cutting-edge EPYC CPUs to ramping up AI accelerator production and embedding itself deeper into the systems ecosystem, AMD is positioning itself as a force to watch.
Here’s how they’re executing and why it matters.
Winning the Data Center with EPYC Momentum
AMD’s EPYC CPUs are at the heart of its data center expansion. The 4th and 5th Gen EPYC processors are gaining traction across hyperscalers and enterprises alike, driving steady CPU server share growth. Major cloud players like AWS, Google, and Oracle have launched more than 30 new EPYC-powered instances in Q1 2025 alone, including first deployments of the latest “Turin” chips.
Enterprise adoption is surging too. EPYC-based instances used by Forbes 2000 companies have more than doubled year-over-year. On-premise deployments have shown large double-digit growth for the seventh straight quarter, supported by wins in the public sector and critical industries like telecom, aerospace, and energy.
AMD’s strategic push includes:
- Over 150 Turin-based platforms coming from OEMs like Dell, Cisco, and Lenovo.
- TSMC’s Arizona fab beginning EPYC chip production, with first shipments expected in H2 2025.
- A glimpse of the next leap—Venice, AMD’s first EPYC on a 2nm process, already in validation for a 2026 debut.
These moves reinforce AMD’s clear roadmap to continued server CPU share gains based on performance, energy efficiency, and total cost of ownership (TCO) advantages.
AI Acceleration: Full Speed Ahead with Instinct GPUs
AMD’s Instinct accelerators are making waves in AI, with strong double-digit revenue growth and broader customer adoption. MI325x and MI300 dominated GPU revenue in Q1, with more than 35 MI300 platforms in production.
The key advantages: industry-leading memory bandwidth and capacity—critical for inferencing, training, and pretraining workloads. From hyperscale cloud providers to sovereign AI deployments in Europe, Instinct GPUs are being used in generative AI, recommendation engines, and large-model inference.
Highlights:
- New MI350 accelerators are sampling now, promising 35x throughput over MI300x.
- AMD is working with Oracle on a massive MI355x deployment combining EPYC Turin CPUs and Polera400 NICs.
- MI400 series development is on track for 2026, aimed at scaling from single-node to data center-wide AI training clusters.
On the software front, AMD is turning up the heat with rapid-fire ROCm releases and model support for Meta’s Llama 4, Google’s Gemma 3, and more than 2 million Hugging Face models running out of the box on Instinct.
System-Level Solutions and Strategic Acquisitions
AMD isn’t just building chips, it’s building systems. With the acquisition of ZT Systems, it now has the tools to deliver full rack-level AI solutions. ZT brings deep systems design expertise, allowing AMD to co-design with customers and streamline deployments using CPUs, GPUs, and networking.
This is a smart move. It lets AMD move beyond silicon and offer turnkey, standards-based AI compute systems, something crucial as large-scale deployment complexity rises.
Regulatory Headwinds, Strategic Resilience
The new export restrictions on MI308 GPUs to China will hit AMD’s 2025 revenue by around $1.5 billion. But AMD was prepared. The company had already factored in limitations on high-end GPU shipments to China in its $500 billion TAM projections.
Interestingly, the MI308 had lower margins than other GPUs, so the shift to the MI350 series for non-China markets could actually benefit AMD’s gross margin. Most of the revenue impact is front-loaded in Q2 and Q3, with Q4 pivoting to non-China markets.
Despite the setback, AMD expects its Data Center GPU business to grow by strong double digits in 2025.
Edge and Embedded: Recovery on the Horizon
In the embedded space, AMD is cautiously optimistic. Growth is expected to resume in the second half of 2025, driven by test and measurement, communications, and aerospace demand.
Product updates include:
- New EPYC Embedded 9005 CPUs now in use by Cisco and IBM.
- The second-gen Versal AI Edge and Spartan UltraScale+ FPGAs to meet rising AI-at-the-edge needs.
- The latest Vitis AI suite broadens support and simplifies deployment.
Conclusion: A Full-Stack Strategy for an AI-First Future
AMD isn’t just shipping chips, it’s delivering platforms. The company’s strategy combines top-tier compute hardware, full-stack AI software, and rack-level system integration. Its aggressive roadmap across EPYC CPUs and Instinct accelerators shows a clear intent: lead in performance, reduce friction for customers, and own more of the AI data center value chain.
While export controls add turbulence, AMD’s broader product strength and market expansion plans put it in a strong position to keep gaining share—at the core, at the edge, and across AI.
Bottom Line: AMD is playing to win! It’s building the hardware, software, and partnerships to do just that.