Latest news with #UntetherAI
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Is AMD Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold on Untether AI Acquisition?
Over the past decade, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has thrived, rewriting its legacy in the fiercely competitive semiconductor arena. The company has evolved from an industry underdog to a headline name in innovation, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI). Adding another feather to its cap, in early June, AMD announced it has brought onboard the team behind Untether AI. These engineers, known for building AI inference chips that outperform rivals in both speed and energy efficiency, will now strengthen AMD's skills in enterprise data centers and edge computing. Robotaxis, Powell and Other Key Things to Watch this Week Make Over a 2.4% One-Month Yield Shorting Nvidia Out-of-the-Money Puts Is Quantum Computing (QUBT) Stock a Buy on This Bold Technological Breakthrough? Stop Missing Market Moves: Get the FREE Barchart Brief – your midday dose of stock movers, trending sectors, and actionable trade ideas, delivered right to your inbox. Sign Up Now! Far more than just a hiring spree, the strategic agreement brings in deep expertise in AI hardware, software, compiler engineering, kernel development, and system-on-chip design, all critical in the fast-moving AI race. The move is no isolated bet. Just weeks ago, AMD acquired silicon photonics firm Enosemi to scale its co-packaging capabilities, and days later, it snapped up open-source software player Brium. So, let us now examine whether the latest move strengthens AMD's position as a compelling investment opportunity. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), headquartered in Santa Clara, California, holds a market cap of $205.6 billion and leads the charge in high-performance computing. The company delivers a powerful mix of CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, Adaptive SoCs, and deep software capabilities to build cutting-edge platforms that support cloud infrastructure, edge computing, and end-user systems. Over the past three months, AMD has been on an upward march, posting gains of 22.5%. In just the last five trading days, the stock has leapt another 4.7%, a sharp spike that points to fresh tailwinds lifting the company higher. On May 6, Advanced Micro Devices lifted the curtain on its Q1 2025 earnings, and its performance beat analyst expectations. The chipmaker reported revenue of $7.44 billion, rising 35.9% year over year and exceeding Wall Street's forecast of $7.12 billion. At the heart of this impressive run was the data center segment, which delivered $3.7 billion in revenue, marking a 57% surge from the same period last year. Other divisions joined the rally too. The client and gaming business generated $2.9 billion combined. While the client unit saw a dramatic upswing of 68%, bringing in $2.3 billion, the gaming segment faced continued headwinds, falling 30% to $647 million. Still, the gains elsewhere helped AMD widen its gross margin to 50%, a solid jump from 47% a year ago, aided by a richer product mix and stronger data center sales. Non-GAAP net income climbed 54.6% to reach $1.6 billion, reinforcing the company's strong operational grip. Adjusted EPS came in at $0.96, up 54.8% from the prior year and again beating the Street's projection of $0.93. But despite the bullish results, AMD struck a cautious tone. Management has flagged export restrictions on A.I. chips to China, estimating a $700 million revenue hit this quarter and a total impact of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year. Even so, AMD forecast Q2 revenue at $7.4 billion. While analysts see EPS dipping 30% year over year to $0.35 in Q2, they expect it to rise 20.6% to $3.16 for the full year and jump 54.1% to $4.87 in fiscal 2026. AMD stands firm in the market, demonstrating steady confidence as it secures a 'Moderate Buy' consensus. Out of 42 analysts closely following the stock, 28 give it an enthusiastic 'Strong Buy' rating, one leans toward a 'Moderate Buy,' and 13 adopt a cautious 'Hold' stance. The average price target of $133.32 represents potential upside of 5.6%. Meanwhile, the Street-High target of $200 hints at a 58.7% climb from current levels. On the date of publication, Aanchal Sugandh did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A timeline of the US semiconductor market in 2025
It's already been a tumultuous year for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry plays a sizable role in the 'AI race' that the U.S. seems determined to win, which is why this context is worth paying attention to: from Intel's appointment of Lip-Bu Tan to CEO — who wasted no time getting to work trying to revitalize the legacy company — to Joe Biden proposing sweeping new AI chip export rules on his way out of office that never came to fruition. Here's a look at what's happened in the first half of 2025. June 18 – Intel announced four new leadership appointments that Intel says will help it move toward its goal of becoming an engineering-first company again. Intel announced a new chief revenue officer in addition to multiple high-profile engineering hires. June 17 – Intel will begin to lay off a significant chunk of its Intel Foundry staff in July. The company plans to eliminate at least 15%, and up to 20%, of workers in that business unit. These layoffs aren't a shock: It was rumored back in April, and Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan has said he wants to flatten the organization. June 13 – Nvidia isn't counting on the U.S. backing off of its AI chip export restrictions anytime soon. After the company took a financial hit from the newly imposed licensing requirements on its H20 AI chips, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company will no longer include the Chinese market in future revenue and profit forecasts. June 6 – AMD makes another acquisition — this time focused on talent. The company acqui-hired the team behind Untether AI, which develops AI inference chips, as the semiconductor giant continues to round out its AI offerings. June 4 – AMD continued its shopping spree. The company acquired AI software optimization startup Brium, which helps companies retrofit AI software to work with different AI hardware. With a lot of AI software being designed with Nvidia hardware in mind, this acquisition isn't surprising. May 28 – Nvidia reported that U.S. licensing requirements on its H20 AI chips cost the company $4.5 billion in charges during Q1. The company expects these requirements to result in an $8 billion hit to Nvidia's revenue in Q2. May 28 – AMD kicks off its acquisition spree. The semiconductor company announced that it acquired Enosemi, a silicon photonics startup. Enosemi's tech, which uses light photons to transmit data, is becoming an increasing area of interest for semiconductor companies. May 21 – China's Commerce Secretary didn't like the U.S.'s guidance, issued on May 13, that warned U.S. companies that using Huawei's AI chips 'anywhere in the world' was a U.S. chip export violation. The commerce secretary issued a statement that threatened legal action against anyone caught enforcing that export restriction. May 20 – Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan seemingly got right to work on his plan to spin out Intel's non-core business units. The semiconductor giant is reportedly looking to offload its networking and edge units, which makes chips for telecom equipment, and was responsible for $5.4 billion of the company's 2024 revenue. May 13 – Just days before the Biden administration's Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule was set to go into place, the U.S. Department of Commerce formally rescinded it. The DOC said that it plans to issue new guidance in the future, and in the meantime companies should remember that using Huawei's Ascend AI chips anywhere in the world is a violation of U.S. export rules. May 7: Just a week before the 'Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion' was set to go into place, the Trump administration plans on taking a different path. According to multiple media outlets, including Axios and Bloomberg, the administration won't enforce the restrictions when they were supposed to start on May 15 and is instead working on its own framework. April 30: Anthropic doubled down on its support for restricting U.S.-made chip exports, including some tweaks to the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, like imposing further restrictions on Tier 2 countries and dedicating resources to enforcement. An Nvidia spokesperson shot back, saying, 'American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in 'baby bumps' or 'alongside live lobsters.'' April 22: Ahead of its Q1 earnings call, Intel said it was planning to lay off more than 21,000 employees. The layoffs were meant to streamline management, something CEO Lip-Bu Tan has long said Intel needed to do, and help rebuild the company's engineering focus. April 15: Nvidia's H20 AI chip got hit with an export licensing requirement, the company disclosed in an SEC filing. The company added it expects $5.5 billion in charges related to this new requirement in the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year. The H20 is the most advanced AI chip Nvidia can still export to China in some form or fashion. TSMC and Intel reported similar expenses the same week. April 9: Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang was spotted attending dinner at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, according to reports. At the time, NPR reported Huang may have been able to spare Nvidia's H20 AI chips from export restrictions upon agreeing to invest in AI data centers in the U.S. April 3: Intel and TSMC allegedly reached a tentative agreement to launch a joint chipmaking venture. This joint venture would operate Intel's chipmaking facilities, and TSMC would have a 20% stake in the new venture. Both companies declined to comment or confirm. If this deal doesn't come to fruition, this is likely a decent preview of potential deals in this industry to come. April 1: CEO Lip-Bu Tan got to work right away. Just weeks after he joined Intel, the company announced that it was going to spin off noncore assets so it could focus. He also said the company would launch new products, including custom semiconductors for customers. March 12: Intel announced that industry veteran, and former board member, Lip-Bu Tan would return to the company as CEO on March 18. At the time of his appointment, Tan said Intel would be an 'engineering-focused company' under his leadership. February 28: Intel was supposed to start operating its first chip fabrication plant in Ohio this year. Instead, the company slowed down construction on the plant for the second time in February. Now the $28 billion semiconductor project won't wrap up construction until 2030 and may not even open until 2031. February 3: U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo), wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Nominee-Designate Howard Lutnick urging the Trump administration to further restrict AI chip exports. The letter specifically referred to Nvidia's H20 AI chips, which were used in the training of DeepSeek's R1 'reasoning' model. January 27: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caused quite the stir in Silicon Valley when it released the open version of its R1 'reasoning' model. While this isn't semiconductor news specifically, the sheer alarm in the AI and semiconductor industries DeepSeek's release caused continues to have ripple effects on the chip industry. January 13: With just a week left in office, former president Joe Biden proposed sweeping new export restrictions on U.S.-made AI chips. This order created a three-tier structure that determined how many U.S. chips can be exported to each country. Under this proposal, Tier 1 countries faced no restrictions; Tier 2 countries had a chip purchase limit for the first time; and Tier 3 countries got additional restrictions. January 6: Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei co-wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal endorsing existing AI chip export controls and pointing to them as a reason why China's AI market was behind the U.S.'. He also called on incoming president Donald Trump to impose further restrictions and to close loopholes that have allowed AI companies in China to still get their hands on these chips. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AMD acquires Untether AI team
AMD has acquired the team behind Untether AI, a developer of AI inference chips claimed to be known for their energy efficiency and speed in edge environments and enterprise data centres, CRN reported. As part of the acquisition, Untether AI executive Bob Beachler announced that the startup will cease supplying or supporting its speedAI products and imAIgine software development kit. 'AMD has entered into a strategic agreement to acquire a talented team of AI hardware and software engineers from Untether AI,' the media outlet reported, citing an AMD spokesperson as saying. 'The transaction brings a world-class team of engineers to AMD, focused on advancing the company's AI compiler and kernel development capabilities as well as enhancing our digital and SoC design, design verification, and product integration capabilities. We are excited to welcome the team's unique expertise to AMD,' the spokesperson added. This acquisition is part of AMD's ongoing strategy to expand its AI computing capabilities and challenge Nvidia's dominance in the field. Earlier in June 2025, AMD snapped up compiler startup Brium to strengthen its open-source AI software ecosystem. Established in 2018 in Toronto, Untether AI focused on AI inference chips for edge environments and data centres, utilising an "at-memory" architecture to enhance performance and decrease power consumption. In October 2024, Untether AI launched the speedAI240 Slim AI inference accelerator card, claiming it demonstrated three times greater energy efficiency in data centres and six times greater in edge environments compared to competitors. The card was adopted by companies such as J-Squared Technologies and Ola-Krutrim, with a partnership for co-developing next-generation data centre solutions. Untether AI also had partnerships with companies such as Arm, Ampere Computing, Asa Computers, Boston, NeuReality, and Vertical Data. "AMD acquires Untether AI team" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Globe and Mail
07-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Canadian chip company Untether AI winding down operations
Promising Canadian chip startup Untether AI Corp. is winding down after failing to raise money earlier this year, and its engineering employees will be transferred to American company Advanced Micro Devices AMD-T. The arrangement is known as an 'acquihire,' in which one company strikes a deal with another to gain access to talent instead of products or services. Toronto-based Untether designed computer chips for artificial intelligence applications such as autonomous vehicles, robots and drones, and said its products were far more energy efficient than others on the market. But the company pivoted too late to the hardware market for powering generative AI applications, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to two sources familiar with the matter, and struggled to compete against the dominance of Nvidia Corp. NVDA-T in the chip market. Economic uncertainty owing to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff agenda contributed to difficulties raising new funds from investors this year, one of the sources said. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they are not authorized to discuss the matter. Untether said in a statement on its website Thursday that it had entered into a 'strategic agreement' with chipmaker AMD, which is based in California. 'While today marks the end of Untether AI's journey, we are proud of the pioneering research that underpinned our work,' the statement read. The company added it will no longer supply or support its hardware and software products. AMD said in a statement to trade publication CRN that it is acquiring 'a talented team of AI hardware and software engineers' from Untether. One source said the value of the deal would likely be less than US$100-million depending on how many employees agree to join AMD. The source added that Meta Platforms Inc., which is working on custom chips for AI applications, was also in talks with Untether. It is not clear what will happen to Untether's intellectual property, which is not part of the transaction, but the source said it could be sold separately. Neither Untether nor AMD immediately replied to a request for comment. From 2024: Toronto's Untether straps in for growth selling AI chips - but can it avoid getting crushed by Nvidia? Chris Walker, Untether's chief executive, left the company in May, according to his LinkedIn profile. He did not reply to The Globe and Mail. Untether was founded in 2018 and received funding from Intel Capital, Radical Ventures, GM Ventures and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The company has raised around $150-million. That means given the potential value of the deal, investors are likely not recouping the total amount they invested. However, losses will depend on when investors first put money into Untether. The company's products were built on the research of co-founder and former University of Toronto professor Martin Snelgrove, who pioneered a different computer chip architecture. The dominant approach to chip-making has followed a design laid out by mathematician and physicist John von Neumann in 1945, but that design wastes a lot of energy shuttling data around. Untether cut the distance data must travel by placing memory and processing units side-by-side on the hardware. Untether pursued the self-driving vehicle market and other systems that use a form of AI know as computer vision, which involves detecting and interpreting objects in videos and images. But the AI world changed with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, as companies became obsessed with generative AI and chatbots. Nvidia became the most valuable publicly traded company in the world as large tech firms scrambled to purchase chips to install inside data centres for training AI models. Untether aimed to compete with Nvidia in the much larger market for powering AI inference, the term for using an AI model after it is built, such as asking a question of ChatGPT. Independent tests gave Untether's products high marks. MLCommons, an industry and academic consortium that benchmarks AI systems, found last year that one of Untether's chips was six times more energy efficient than competing products, and with lower latency, in one testing category. But Untether's push into the market for chips housed in data centres for generative AI may have come too late, especially given Nvidia's scale and reputation. The California-based company is worth close to US$3.5-trillion.
Business Insider
07-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
M&A News: AMD Continues Buying Spree by Acquiring Untether AI's Engineering Team
Chipmaker AMD (AMD) has, for an undisclosed amount, acquired the engineering team from Untether AI, which is a Canadian startup known for developing energy-efficient AI inference chips for edge devices and data centers. According to CRN, the team will now focus on improving AMD's AI software, chip design, and system integration. Untether AI, which will no longer sell its speedAI chips or software, said it was proud of its innovations and looks forward to contributing to AMD. Confident Investing Starts Here: This acquisition follows AMD's recent purchase of compiler startup Brium, as part of its plan to better compete with Nvidia (NVDA). Interestingly, Untether AI's chips, built on an 'at-memory' architecture, had shown significant gains in performance and energy efficiency. Indeed, its speedAI240 Slim card, for example, delivered industry-leading results in MLPerf benchmarks while using less power than competing solutions. The card had already been adopted by companies like J-Squared Technologies and Ola-Krutrim, with the latter having also partnered with Untether to co-develop next-gen data center solutions. Furthermore, Untether AI had built partnerships with firms like Ampere Computing, Arm (ARM), and NeuReality. This was because its chips addressed a growing demand for AI processors that consume less power than traditional GPUs, which are straining modern data center power limits. Nevertheless, AMD will now integrate Untether's expertise into its product portfolio in order to help expand its AI capabilities across a wider range of markets. Is AMD a Buy, Sell, or Hold? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AMD stock based on 22 Buys, 10 Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average AMD price target of $126.55 per share implies 8.9% upside potential.
