AMD expresses confidence in its competitive position against the Intel-NVIDIA partnership in AI chips.

In September, Intel and NVIDIA announced a multi-billion dollar partnership in which the two chipmakers will collaborate on designing and building custom x86 chips for the data center and client segments. The deal sees NVIDIA leveraging Intel's x86 intellectual property for the development of custom CPUs for its data center and AI infrastructure, while also integrating NVIDIA's RTX GPU IP inside Intel's x86 SoCs for PCs. The NVIDIA RTX IP will be used in a different class of SoCs to target AMD's Halo designs, such as the Ryzen AI MAX offerings.

In response to this partnership, AMD has stated that the Intel-NVIDIA collaboration could adversely affect their business. In a comment to CRN, AMD cited the tie-up as an example of strategic partnerships between its rivals that could "increase competition and adversely affect our business." The company elaborated: "This partnership may result in increased competition and pricing pressure for our products, which could materially adversely impact our business, financial condition and margins."

While AMD's concerns are legitimate, custom NVIDIA-Intel products remain years away from market. AMD's Ryzen AI MAX series has already been available for some time and delivers strong PC and workstation capabilities on mobile platforms. Intel had planned to compete in this segment with its Arrow Lake Halo family, but that offering was ultimately cancelled. Intel is expected to roll out its first Halo-class chips with Nova Lake-AX sometime in 2026-2027, while NVIDIA will have its own AI PC offering based on the N1 series SoCs next year.

AMD is actively working on a Strix Halo refresh for next year, with production now in full ramp. The company is expected to secure more platform wins, especially in the handheld segment, with new SKU options. A combined Intel and NVIDIA effort will create pressure in the market, with NVIDIA providing its GPU intellectual property to Intel and Intel providing access to its advanced packaging and x86 intellectual property to NVIDIA. However, AMD is positioned well to tackle this competition with its high-performance offerings based on the Zen 6 architecture and future RDNA architectures.