In another move to ramp up competition against Nvidia, AMD says it has acquired Enosemi to develop photonics and co-packaged optics solutions that can help the chip designer enable ‘faster, more efficient data movement’ that is required by ever-growing AI models.
AMD said Wednesday it has acquired silicon photonics startup Enosemi to “support and develop a variety of photonics and co-packaged optics solutions across next-gen AI systems.”
Enosemi’s photonic integrated circuits will help AMD enable “faster, more efficient data movement” within server racks that is required by ever-growing AI models, AMD executive Brian Amick said in a blog post.
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“Co-packaged optics can deliver higher bandwidth density and better power efficiency than traditional approaches, representing a transformative step in system architecture where tighter integration between compute and networking is enabled to support the performance and scale that advanced AI workloads require,” he wrote.
The chip designer did not disclose how much it paid to acquire Enosemi.
The acquisition was announced nearly two months after AMD completed its $4.9 billion acquisition of ZT Systems with the intention of using the data center infrastructure provider’s rack-scale AI solutions design and customer enablement teams to develop a “new class of end-to-end AI solutions” to ramp up competition against Nvidia.
AMD reached a deal to sell ZT Systems’ server manufacturing business to Sanmina in a $3 billion deal that will see the latter company become a preferred new product introduction manufacturing partner for the chip designer’s cloud rack and cluster-scale AI solutions.
Founded in 2023, Enosemi’s “elite team of experts and PhD-level talent” has a “proven record of building and shipping photonic integrated circuits in volume, a unique feat that few select teams have accomplished,” Amick said in his blog post.
Amick said AMD has been building a “best-in-class portfolio” that is designed to “address the rapidly evolving needs of AI.” This portfolio includes “foundational silicon” such as the AI engines and adaptive system-on-chip technologies gained through its Xilinx acquisition as well as the advanced data movement and networking capabilities that came from its acquisition of Pensando. The portfolio also features AI software from its Silo AI and Mipsology acquisitions as well as the rack-level system design expertise of its ZT Systems acquisition.
“As we look ahead, the demands of AI systems will require not just powerful chips, but full-stack innovation across compute, networking, systems architecture, software and more,” wrote Amick, who is senior vice president of technology and engineering. “AMD is uniquely positioned to deliver across this stack, bringing together our industry-leading CPUs, GPUs, and adaptive [system-on-chips] with deep networking, software and system integration expertise.”
