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AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

ft.com

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Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#141

Post by mandevil »

seabird wrote: post #68
anonym29 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"fix"? What is there to fix? AMD has been simultaneously fighting Intel and Nvidia, two MUCH larger companies, and it's been winning the fight against Intel for close to a decade now. It's certainly not Lisa Su's fault that the clowns over at Intel got stuck on variations of 14nm (with clever marketing names like 14nm+++++) for nearly a decade, but credit certainly is hers for introducing Zen and putting AMD back on…

This site is full of people with the west coast VC-driven-tech bizarro world blinders on. If AMD just keeps at what they've been doing well (matching or beating Intel processors) instead of chasing after the latest buzzword grift bubble, they're doomed in the eyes of people with that mindset.

I think AMD's concern is that x86 might not be much of a market in 10 years. Between Apple, Amazon Graviton, and Nvidia Grace Hopper's ARM CPU we are seeing a sustained successful attack on x86 the likes of which we haven't seen... ever? Sustained and successful non-x86 Desktops, servers, and next-gen datacenter platforms, where does that leave AMD? (Intel has a little more diversification because of it's foundry opportunities, but is in the same boat.)

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#142

Post by antupis »

SSLy wrote: post #4

My cursory understanding is that Silo is a developer of LLMs that run on top of compute platforms. Isn't the problem with no one using AMD's accelerators the fact that their programming environment is sub-par compared to CUDA, or even Apple's?

Silo mainly does consulting and those models were kinda done on side. But great for founders and truly weird acquisition for AMD.

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#143

Post by YinLuck- »

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #25
daghamm wrote: post #21

Since FT is paywalled and the press release link from Silo is currently pointig to nowhere: https://www.silo.ai/blog/amd-to-acquire-silo-ai-to-expand-en... I've no idea what is going on. This is 5 times bigger than their combined AI acquisitions in the last 12 months. The only link between Silo and AMD is that Silo has been using an AMD accelerator cluster for training.

I honestly don't understand how paywalled links get so much traction, most people probably can't even engage with the material. Thanks for the direct link to Silo AI's press release!

[dead]

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#144

Post by xyst »

eightysixfour wrote: post #31
mastax wrote: post #24

I’d argue that a factor in CUDA’s success is their army of in-house researchers which use CUDA to do novel things. Sometimes those things get turned into products (OptiX) other times they are essentially DevRel to show off what the hardware can do and documentation for how to do it. Additionally I’m sure they use pre-release hardware and software and give feedback about how to improve it. I don’t know what AMD has in…

Yes, nvidia spends a lot of time and money developing software that induces demand for their GPUs.

Nvidia also spends a metric shit ton of money to make sure professors use and teach on their platform.

I don’t remember any alternatives in uni. Maybe OpenCL but only lightly mentioned

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#145

Post by Izikiel43 »

xyst wrote: post #144
eightysixfour wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, nvidia spends a lot of time and money developing software that induces demand for their GPUs.

Nvidia also spends a metric shit ton of money to make sure professors use and teach on their platform. I don’t remember any alternatives in uni. Maybe OpenCL but only lightly mentioned

Opencl is horrible compared to cuda

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#146

Post by fauigerzigerk »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #76
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Not sure if it is a great win for the EU at large if their AI startups get bought up by American companies though, to be fair. That would be a concern if the plan was to move the entire team to the US. But if the Finland based company just becomes a part of AMD then I see little downside. Some very competent people in Finland now have $665M to fund new startups. Ultimately I think the most important question is wher…

>That would be a concern if the plan was to move the entire team to the US. The issue is that all that Finnish labor now fuels a US tech giant who's profit center is in the US, not in EU, therefore mostly boosting the US economy in the process. Then there's also the trade barriers that come with now becoming a US tech company instead of a Finnish one. You can't sell to China, and other countries on the US's shit list…

>The issue is that all that Finnish labor now fuels a US tech giant who's profit center is in the US, not in EU, therefore mostly boosting the US economy in the process.

No, this is not how it works. Assuming Silo AI continues to operate out of Finland, its investments, the consumption of its employees and its exports will continue to count towards Finland's GDP just like before. Any profits go to AMD shareholders all over the world, not just in the US. The strategic alignment between Silo AI and AMD may well benefit both Finland and the US.

We have a similar debate in the UK regarding DeepMind. And yes it's true, if you assume that DeepMind or Silo AI would have become world dominating tech behemoths in their own right, then it would have been better for Britain/Finland if they hadn't been sold.

But it's also possible that the UK and Finish operations are ultimately more successful as part of Google/AMD because they benefit from strategic opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have.

I'm not saying that headquarters don't matter or that there are no downsides (e.g wrt corporation tax). What I am saying is that it's not automatically a bad thing for a country if a company gets sold to a foreign corporation.

One thing is for sure. It's far better to have a lot of US subsidiaries in the country than watching your graduates and startup founders leave for the US.

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#147

Post by rib3ye »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #34

I've been thinking that NVDA stock is massively overpriced - yes, AI is a hot topic, but their only advantage is the software stack. It is just a matter of time until Intel and AMD realize that they should join hands and do an open-source CUDA alternative for their respecitve GPUs (yes, Intel has competetive GPUs and just like AMD and Nvidia they will try to get a share of the AI chip market share).

NVDA P/E ratio 78.70

AMD P/E ratio 263.25

If NVDA is overpriced, AMD is REALLY over-priced.

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#148

Post by helloericsf »

xyst wrote: post #144
eightysixfour wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, nvidia spends a lot of time and money developing software that induces demand for their GPUs.

Nvidia also spends a metric shit ton of money to make sure professors use and teach on their platform. I don’t remember any alternatives in uni. Maybe OpenCL but only lightly mentioned

OpenCL was discussed more frequently in classes about a decade ago. However, I haven't heard it mentioned in the last five years or so.

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#149

Post by p_j_w »

blackhawkC17 wrote: post #67
mistrial9 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they have loyal and stable staff with healthy family lives unlike 8 of 10 California companies

Employee loyalty isn’t a good thing. One of the best things about Silicon Valley is that people can swiftly change companies when they get higher offers. Non-competes are void in California. There’s a reason US salaries for software devs are 2-5x EU salaries for similar roles.

>There’s a reason US salaries for software devs are 2-5x EU salaries for similar roles.

When you account for medical costs, rent (especially compared to the localities in the USA that provide these huge salaries), extra vacation time, and for those with children, education and child care, this gap narrows considerably.

Rent alone... one can find a reasonable spot in Berlin for ~$1300/mo. Good luck finding more than a shared box in the Tenderloin for that much in the Bay Area.

Re: AMD to buy Silo AI for $665M

#150

Post by kakoni »

bjornsing wrote: post #126
nicce wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I am bit sad that nothing stays in Finland. Too many promising companies have been sold into foreign countries recently. Just because founders look for exit strategy (not claiming that it is the case here). Not good for Finland in general.

But hats off to Finland for producing these companies. Here in Sweden there’s pretty much nothing in cloud computing or AI, AFAIK.

Well in Finland we seem to produce promising "early-stage" companies which are then eagerly sold to bigger players. Vs in Sweden there is will (and capital) to keep growing these.
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