AMD launches rival to Nvidia’s AI chip

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Good morning. Chip designer AMD has launched a brand new product it hopes will break Nvidia’s dominance of the substitute intelligence processor market.

AMD’s MI300X chip is “essentially the most superior AI accelerator within the trade”, chief government Lisa Su stated yesterday at an occasion in San Jose, California, claiming it outperformed Nvidia’s present providing. “It’s actually clear that the demand is simply rising a lot, a lot quicker.”

Nvidia’s H100 chip — which Su used as some extent of comparability for the MI300X — has dominated the market, with demand outstripping provide as corporations together with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google use them to develop generative AI instruments.

AMD expects its MI300 chips to be its quickest product to hit $1bn in gross sales, a goal it believes it is going to obtain round mid-2024. Learn extra about AMD’s plans to disrupt the AI chip market forecast to be value $400bn by 2027.

Right here’s what else I’m maintaining tabs on right this moment:

• EU-China summit: European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel meet Chinese language President Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang in Beijing. The EU leaders plan to emphasize their issues about Chinese language industrial overcapacity, amid indicators China is pumping extra funding into manufacturing.

• Russia-Iran: President Vladimir Putin hosts his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, in Moscow. Iran is a vital ally of the Kremlin and a supplier of army gear for its forces in Ukraine.

• Financial knowledge: The eurozone releases third-quarter gross home product and employment knowledge, mortgage supplier Halifax publishes UK home costs for November, France has commerce steadiness figures and Italy stories retail gross sales.

• Outcomes: AJ Bell, Broadcom, Cooper Corporations, Greenback Common, DS Smith, Frasers Group and Lululemon report.

The FT is searching for entries for its annual record of Africa’s fastest-growing corporations. The third instalment of the rating might be revealed in early June 2024. Apply right here to be thought-about.

5 extra high tales

1. UK immigration minister Robert Jenrick stop yesterday as Rishi Sunak’s “unite or die” plea to avoid wasting his Rwanda asylum coverage unleashed a rightwing Conservative backlash. Sunak’s proposed laws orders courts to disregard the UK’s Human Rights Act and worldwide regulation when contemplating whether or not Rwanda is secure for asylum seekers. A rightwing Tory insider stated Jenrick had warned Quantity 10 he had “authorized recommendation saying it wouldn’t work, however the prime minister ignored him”.

2. Unique: Bankers have sounded out potential consumers for a minority stake in Sotheby’s as its proprietor Patrick Drahi comes underneath strain to promote property at his indebted telecoms group Altice. These approached embrace European billionaires and the Qatar Funding Authority, stated two folks with information of the contacts. Learn extra on Sotheby’s pitch and Drahi’s try to chop Altice’s $60bn debt mountain.

3. Company debtors within the US and Europe are dashing to reap the benefits of a pointy drop in borrowing prices, issuing $246bn value of investment-grade and junk bonds in November alone — 57 per cent greater than October’s whole and $16bn larger than the common determine for the primary 10 months of the yr, in keeping with knowledge from LSEG. Discover out which corporations have already issued bonds.

4. The worldwide oil market has been caught abruptly by elevated US crude oil manufacturing, which reached an all-time excessive of 13.2mn barrels a day in September, in keeping with figures launched final week. America’s file provide, which is greater than every other nation and accounts for about one in eight barrels of worldwide output, is inflicting difficulties for the Opec+ oil cartel and complicates the federal government’s local weather agenda.

5. Interview: Sanofi chief Paul Hudson has admitted he might have performed a greater job explaining a multibillion-euro funding plan to shareholders forward of a gathering right this moment the place he’ll attempt to promote them on spending extra to develop 12 potential blockbuster drug candidates. Hudson is underneath strain to show that pouring further funds into inner analysis will remedy the French group’s innovation woes. Examine Hudson’s R&D plans.

The Massive Learn

For 75 years, Jewish Israelis and Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have endured a fragile coexistence, typically working side-by-side however hardly ever understanding one another’s lives. The resurgence of battle with the Israel-Hamas conflict has put an unprecedented pressure on relations between Jews and the 2mn Palestinians who reside alongside them.

We’re additionally studying and listening to . . . 

Map of the day

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has dramatically raised the stakes in his nation’s border dispute with neighbouring Guyana, ordering state corporations to take advantage of contested oil and mineral deposits and redrawing official maps after claiming an “overwhelming” mandate in a referendum final Sunday.

FT Journal

Tang Mingfang was a supervisor at a Foxconn plant in southern China the place 1000’s of employees assemble Amazon Kindle gadgets and Echo sensible audio system. Then he determined to talk out in regards to the injustices he witnessed there, together with youngsters illegally working time beyond regulation. Tang not solely misplaced his job however was additionally imprisoned for leaking enterprise secrets and techniques. Now, he ponders whether or not he blew the whistle on Foxconn with out considering an excessive amount of about his future. That is the story of Tang’s pursuit of vindication.

Further contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm