AMD and Cerebras join forces on AI inference

Why it matters: Inference is the part of AI computing that turns a trained model into a response, making it central to the speed and cost of everyday AI services.

The big picture: The deal comes shortly after AMD announced Anthropic as a major customer, as demand for AI compute continues to grow.

Driving the news: Cerebras plans to deploy AMD Helios systems in its data centers, with the joint offering available through Cerebras Cloud later this year.

• AMD chips will handle prompt processing and large context windows, while Cerebras systems will accelerate token generation, which requires substantial memory bandwidth.

• Earlier this week, AMD confirmed a deal to supply up to 2 gigawatts of computing power to Anthropic, with the first gigawatt expected to come online in 2027. AMD also agreed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic.

What they're saying: AMD CEO Lisa Su said the partnership reflects a broader shift toward using different chips for different stages of an AI workload.

• "I think we're going to see more workload disaggregation," Su said during a briefing with reporters.

By the numbers: Su said AI could help expand the global computing market to $2 trillion by 2030.