- AMD has acquired the engineering team from Canadian AI chip startup Untether AI, based in Toronto.
- The move supports AMD’s push into AI-optimised silicon and builds on its long-term custom chip strategy.
What happened
AMD has taken in the engineering team of Untether AI. Untether AI is a Canadian startup that works on AI chips for inference tasks. This deal helps AMD grow its custom chip design skills and adds more expert workers to its team. AMD confirmed the move, and Verdict also reported the story. The team includes around 100 engineers. They will now become part of AMD’s operations, which are based in Toronto, Canada.
Untether AI is known for building power-saving AI chips. These chips use a special setup where the memory is placed near the place where data is used. This setup helps the chip work faster and use less power. The rest of the Untether AI company will stay separate and keep working on its own. The group of engineers from Untether AI will now join AMD’s Artificial Intelligence Group. This group is led by Senior Vice President Vamsi Boppana. AMD said the move fits with its goal to build strong and flexible computing tools. These tools are used in large data centres and in AI systems.
AMD did not share how much it paid for this deal. But it said bringing in the Untether team will help speed up work on new kinds of chips. These chips will be made for AI jobs. More and more businesses and cloud companies are now using these chips.
Also read: AMD targets SMB market with new Epyc 4005 server CPUs
Also read:AMD surges on AI server chip demand despite embedded slowdown
Why it‘s important
AMD’s decision to bring in the Untether AI engineering team shows the growing need for AI workers in the chip industry. Companies like Nvidia and Intel are also putting more effort into building AI chips. AMD wants to stay in the race by adding more people to its design teams and by building a stronger base in Canada.
This step follows AMD’s earlier choices to buy Xilinx and Pensando. These past deals helped AMD work on special types of chips made for AI, edge computing, and network systems. Now, by adding the Untether AI team, AMD is moving further in the same direction. It also shows that AMD sees Toronto as a place full of AI talent. The city has many good schools and research labs, which gives AMD more chances to work with skilled people and grow its presence there.
AMD did not buy Untether AI as a whole company. It only brought in the team of engineers. This is a simpler way to gain new ideas and avoid high costs. The engineers can keep doing their technical work, but now inside AMD’s larger group. AMD can also use their skills to make better AI chips. This kind of move helps AMD grow in a smart and careful way.