AI Compute: Rebuilt for the Agentic Era | Mark Papermaster, AMD | RAISE Summit 2026

Market Performance & Share:

• AMD's market capitalization rose from ~$200B to nearly $1T within six months, driven by AI adoption and strategic execution.
• The company is on a trajectory to achieve server CPU market share leadership within the next few months.
• Revenue in the AI sector scaled from zero to $5B in a single year (2023–2024).

Technological Shifts & Architecture:

• GenTech AI applications require significantly more CPU processing power for orchestration and reasoning, shifting the workload ratio from one CPU per eight GPUs to one CPU per one GPU.
• Increasing context windows and complex agent workflows have increased CPU demand by approximately four times compared to previous generations.
• AMD has moved from siloed CPU/GPU divisions to a "holistic design" philosophy that optimizes the entire system stack, including networking and software.
• The upcoming "Helios" AI rack is a 72-node system utilizing open OCP standards for networking and AI stacks, scheduled for release this fall.
• New "Venice" CPUs based on a two-nanometer process are confirmed for upcoming announcement.

Operational Strategy & Solutions:

• AMD acquired ZT Systems to transition from selling components to delivering optimized, rack-level solutions (clusters of CPU, GPU, and networking).
• The company is targeting edge AI deployment, exemplified by the "Strix Halo" PC which can run hundreds of billions of parameter models locally for data sovereignty.
• AMD is training 100% of its sales force in AI agent usage and solution selling to align with the shift toward AI-first enterprise needs.
• The company adopts an open ecosystem strategy, releasing new features to the community via open-source software stacks and continuous integration rather than keeping them proprietary.

Energy & Efficiency:

• Agentic workflows enable parallel processing that maximizes infrastructure utilization, moving from fractional capacity to near-maximum efficiency.
• Global power constraints and energy gating are driving the industry's focus on extreme energy efficiency in chip design and system operation.
• AMD views cost optimization as a continuous, generational process aimed at improving the energy-per-token ratio through hardware and software co-design.

Geopolitical & Regional Focus:

• AMD is doubling down on the European market to address demand for digital sovereignty and compliance with EU anti-lock-in regulations.
• Strategic partnerships include the Lumi supercomputer in Finland, Alice in France, ENI in Italy, and HLRS in Germany, all running AMD's open AI stacks.
• The company views the EU AI Gigafactory revisions as a positive shift toward industry diversity and open vendor choice.

Corporate Culture:

• AMD maintains a "scrappy underdog" culture characterized by grit, humility, and a strong focus on customer collaboration and execution speed.
• The organization, currently 33,000 employees, prioritizes listening to customer problems to drive product development.