In a bold move to expand its AI chip market, AMD has invested $20 million in Washington-based drug discovery company Absci. This strategic partnership signals AMD’s first enter into the life sciences sector, a space already targeted by industry heavyweight like Nvidia.

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AMD Goes All-In on Healthcare AI – A Strategic Partnership.
AMD’s investment in Absci is structured as a private equity deal, granting them a substantial equity stake (the exact percentage remains undisclosed). This collaboration aims to optimize AI solutions and reduce hardware costs for Absci, ultimately streamlining and accelerating the drug discovery process. This efficiency boost is crucial for bringing new treatments to market faster.

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Mark Papermaster, AMD’s Chief Technology Officer, emphasized that this partnership is just the beginning of AMD’s expansion into vertical markets. He highlighted healthcare as a key area where AMD’s AI chips can deliver significant societal benefits.
Why AMD’s Move is a Big Deal?
- Nvidia’s AI Crown Under Threat: Last year, Nvidia invested $50 million in Recursion Pharmaceuticals, dominating the healthcare AI scene. But AMD is closing in fast, with Absci as its secret weapon.
- Cutting Costs, Boosting AI Power: Absci currently uses over 470 AI chips, mostly from Nvidia. AMD’s GPUs are now in the spotlight, promising lower costs and better efficiency for Absci’s AI drug discovery projects.
- Custom Solutions for Healthcare: Absci and AMD are co-developing AI-driven hardware and software specifically tailored for healthcare innovations.
The AI Revolution in Drug Discovery.
Absci, a leader in AI chip technology with over 470 Nvidia GPUs, is exploring the potential to transition a portion of its workload to AMD GPUs. Sean McClain, Absci’s founder and CEO, underscored the advantages of this strategic shift, citing the substantial increase in its computing expenses and the partnership with AMD as a cost-effective approach to expand its AI-driven drug discovery initiatives.
Absci is also collaborating with AMD to create custom hardware and software solutions tailored for healthcare and AI applications.
AMD’s Vision: A New AI Frontier.

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AMD isn’t just investing—it’s challenging the status quo. From its recent $333 million financing round with cloud provider Vultr to this bold step into healthcare, AMD is positioning itself as a serious contender in the AI hardware market.
What’s Next?
With Absci’s total funding now at $567 million, the biotech startup is ramping up its AI models and pushing the boundaries of innovation. AMD’s involvement could accelerate the shift to AI-driven drug discovery, sparking a healthcare revolution.
Why This Matters: AMD’s bold bet on healthcare AI signals a seismic shift in the tech landscape. Could this partnership finally loosen Nvidia’s grip on the GPU market? One thing’s for sure: the battle for AI supremacy is heating up, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
source: The Wall Street Journal.


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