In a rapidly evolving AI landscape, AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, has emerged as a formidable challenger to Nvidia's dominance, particularly in the AI hardware sector. Su, having led AMD to disrupt Intel's long-standing grip on the CPU market, is now set to ch...

In a rapidly evolving AI landscape, AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, has emerged as a formidable challenger to Nvidia's dominance, particularly in the AI hardware sector. Su, having led AMD to disrupt Intel's long-standing grip on the CPU market, is now set to challenge Nvidia's stronghold in AI, positioning her company as an essential competitor in the field. This move comes at a time when Nvidia's CUDA platform has largely defined the AI hardware space, with deep integration across software ecosystems.

As Nvidia's dominance in the AI hardware sector continues to grow, AMD has been actively pursuing a series of strategic acquisitions aimed at diversifying the market. AMD's strategy is not unlike its previous role in the CPU market, where it acted as a counterbalance to Intel, creating a competitive pricing dynamic. Now, with AI hardware increasingly becoming a key battleground, AMD is leveraging its acquisition strategy to challenge Nvidia's nearly unchallenged position.

Six strategic acquisitions strengthen AI portfolio

AMD's recent acquisitions—six in total—have strengthened its position in the AI space, marking the company as a serious contender. Following its 2023 acquisitions of Mipsology and Nod.AI, AMD continued to bolster its AI portfolio in 2024 and 2025. Key moves included acquiring Silo AI in July 2024 and ZT Systems in March 2025. In addition to these strategic moves, AMD made the major decision to sell its manufacturing division for US$3 billion to Sanmina, while retaining its AI systems design operations.

The most recent acquisitions were particularly notable. In a whirlwind of activity, AMD announced the acquisition of Brium, an AI software optimization startup, and Untether AI, a company focused on AI chip technology. These acquisitions, which took place within a single week in June 2024, signal AMD's intent to challenge Nvidia's AI hardware supremacy.

Breaking Nvidia's software ecosystem grip

The core of AMD's strategy lies in the integration of cutting-edge software and hardware capabilities. The acquisition of Brium is a key part of this effort. Brium, founded just one year prior, specializes in machine learning applications that optimize AI software, enabling it to run efficiently across different hardware platforms, including GPUs. This expertise is particularly crucial as Nvidia's hardware has long been deeply entrenched in the AI software ecosystem. AMD's goal with Brium is clear: to break the dependency on Nvidia's ecosystem, opening the door to a more diverse AI hardware environment.

The significance of this acquisition is underscored by Brium's previous comments about Nvidia's entrenched position. In a 2024 blog post, Brium noted the difficulty of fully unlocking the potential of AMD's Instinct GPUs, as most workloads were optimized for Nvidia GPUs. This speaks to the overarching challenge that AMD aims to address: diversifying the AI hardware landscape and minimizing the dominance of Nvidia's GPU-based ecosystem.

Building AI engineering talent

In addition to acquiring software expertise, AMD has also been building out its AI hardware talent. The company recently acquired the core team of Untether AI, a leader in high-performance AI inference chips. Untether AI's innovative at-memory architecture is designed to enhance AI processing at the edge and in data centers, significantly improving computational performance while reducing power consumption.

The acquisition of Untether AI marks another milestone in AMD's bid to challenge Nvidia's GPU-based AI dominance. By focusing on key engineering talent and intellectual property, AMD is positioning itself as a company capable of creating high-performance, energy-efficient AI chips.

Vision for open AI ecosystem

AMD's long-term goal is to foster a more open and diverse AI ecosystem, providing customers with alternatives to Nvidia's hardware. While this move signals AMD's ambition to challenge Nvidia's market leadership, it also underscores the rapid acceleration of competition in the AI space, with companies like AMD seeking to offer more flexible and innovative AI solutions.

The combination of strategic acquisitions, talent acquisition, and a focus on building an open AI ecosystem positions AMD as a powerful challenger to Nvidia's AI dominance. As AI continues to reshape industries, AMD's moves signal the beginning of a more diverse and competitive market for AI hardware, ultimately benefiting customers and fostering innovation. With Lisa Su at the helm, AMD is not just playing catch-up but is making bold strides toward reshaping the future of AI.