SUNNYVALE (dpa-AFX) - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) says it will start shipping its first rack-scale AI system, called Helios, later this year. Microsoft is joining Meta, OpenAI, Oracle, and other major customers in adopting the platform. The news pushed AMD shares up more than 4%, while Microsoft rose over 1%.
Microsoft said it plans to deploy Helios in its Azure data centers to support frontier AI model inference, customer workloads, and Azure AI services. The company also said it will roll out new Azure compute instances powered by AMD's latest Venice CPUs, aimed at use cases such as agentic AI, data pipelines, and semiconductor design.
Helios is AMD's first rack-scale platform positioned as a direct alternative to Nvidia's Grace Blackwell systems and the upcoming Vera Rubin generation. It bundles AMD's Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs, networking technology, and the ROCm software stack into a single integrated system. AMD says eight of the world's top 10 AI companies already run workloads on its Instinct GPUs.
Other customers are also lining up. Meta plans to deploy up to one gigawatt of Helios systems later this year as part of a broader six-gigawatt AI infrastructure commitment. OpenAI, Oracle, and Tata Consultancy Services have also said they will use the platform.
AMD added that its data center business grew 57% year over year in the first quarter of 2026 and expects to generate tens of billions of dollars in AI revenue starting in 2027, with Helios contributing the majority.
Nvidia still controls more than 95% of the data center GPU market, but analysts believe Helios could help AMD meaningfully grow its share as demand for AI compute continues to climb.
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