AMD: AWS/ OpenAI/ UA-Link/ ASIC

Jun 18, 2025

∙ Paid

TAM

• continues to model 20–25% of the $500B+ TAM as addressable by ASICs.

AWS

• Yes, Amazon is a customer and strategic partner for both CPU and GPU (AI).

• Amazon was listed as a sponsor of the Advancing AI event (top of sponsor board), though did not join on stage.

• The blog confusion stemmed from a misstep in AMD's comms team, which mixed customer/sponsor lists.

• Amazon prefers to announce instances/services independently and on its own timeline.

• The engagement is deep and ongoing, despite lack of public-facing announcements during the event.

OpenAI

• AMD has had direct engagement with OpenAI since before the MI300 launch.

• While OpenAI typically procures capacity via Microsoft, it is also directly engaged with AMD.

• Over the past 18 months, AMD’s relationship with OpenAI has become more direct and strategic.

• OpenAI is involved in giving feedback on MI325, MI355, and is co-designing future systems like MI450 and Helios.

Product

• MI400 includes not just GPU but also Polaris DPU (Pensando) and server-side CPU.

• $400M deal with 13,000 GPUs disclosed publicly → Implied ASP includes infrastructure, not just GPU.

• BOM (Bill of Materials) cost increases, but gross margin dollars are accretive.

MI350

MI350 ramp was pulled in slightly — now starting to ship late June 2025, earlier than original 2H timeline.
Lisa’s message was more about systems being ready, not full-scale volume yet.
Lisa hinted at the MI500 series in 2027.

Q&A

Q: What drives the “40% more tokens per dollar” for MI355, and is this mainly a pricing or performance story?

Wukong