‘We support the x86. The x86 is very important to us. We support it for PCs, workstations, data centers. And so the fact that the architecture was fragmenting isn’t good for the industry, so I love what they’re doing,’ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tells CRN about the formation of the Intel-AMD ecosystem advisory group.

The leaders of the three largest computer chipmakers in the world rallied behind Intel and AMD’s x86 partnership at Lenovo Tech World Tuesday, highlighting the importance of keeping the venerable x86 design running smoothly.

Intel and AMD Tuesday unveiled a new x86 ecosystem advisory group will enlist several tech giants as members—including Microsoft, Dell Technologies, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and Google—as well as Linux creator Linus Torvalds.

Nvidia founder, president and CEO Jensen Huang told CRN the x86’s architecture was becoming fragmented, which risked upending the very definition of the term and wasn’t good for business.

“We support x86. X86 is very important to us. We support it for PCs, workstations, data centers. And so the fact that the architecture was fragmenting isn’t good for the industry. So I love what they’re doing. Pulling it together and making sure that x86 remains x86. Otherwise, it’s not x86 anymore so I think it’s really terrific what they’re doing.”

Pat Gelsinger (pictured above left), CEO of Intel, the designer of the x86 chip, was emphatic in his defense of the design and the partnership with AMD when he appeared on stage, introduced by Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang (pictured above right).

“You all have a front row seat to maybe the first partnership with Intel and AMD,” Gelsinger told the crowd. “Some have said ‘Is the x86 done?’ I’ll tell you rumors of its death are severely exaggerated. We are alive and well and the x86 is thriving. … Pat and Lisa [Su,chair and CEO of AMD] agree on something. Who’d have thunk it?”

Minutes later on the same stage, Su told the audience that her company’s partnership with Intel shows the unpredictable nature of the technology market.

“Pat was on stage. He mentioned our x86 advisory group. That is something that tells you just how unique a time this is in technology,” she said. “At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is accelerate compute and accelerate the adoption of compute. X86 has been the foremost leader and architect over the last 40 years. The idea is AMD and Intel bringing together all these founding members can really accelerate the pace of innovation going forward.”

In their joint announcement, Intel and AMD said the advisory group aims to “shape the future of x86 and foster developer innovation through a more unified set of instructions and architectural interfaces.” This is expected to “enhance compatibility, predictability and consistency across x86 product offerings,” the two companies added.

As CRN reported Tuesday, Intel and AMD’s x86 CPU businesses have faced a growing threat from the Arm instruction set architecture, which has enabled consumer tech giant Apple, mobile chip designer Qualcomm and cloud computing giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google to design their own CPUs for the PC and cloud markets. Meanwhile, another mobile chip designer, MediaTek, has publicly stated its intention to introduce Arm-based CPUs for Windows PCs and is reportedly working with Nvidia to do so.

This has intensified competition for Intel and AMD. For example, both companies have responded in the past year to the high core densities and high efficiency of Arm-based server CPUs with their own high-core-count, efficiency-focused processors, with AMD debuting its EPYC Bergamo chips last year and Intel more recently launching its Xeon 6 E-core chips.

Here are Gelsinger and Su’s remarks from the Lenovo conference as well as what Huang told CRN about the new x86 advisory group.

Intel’s Pat Gelsinger

Let’s start with the AI era. When I think about this, we’re entering one of the most exciting eras of innovation. For someone like myself who has been participating in technology for over 40 years, to say it’s one of the most exciting eras, this is pretty profound. I think of it like the internet when it first came out. I was on the internet today. Wow! I used it twice today. Wow! Now my kids use it seven times a second.

Think of AI having that same impact. From, ‘Wow, I did a GenAI query’ to ‘I did something on ChatGPT’ to becoming mainstream to everything we do. It will fundamentally change the relationships between people and technology.

Because of that, we think of every company becoming an AI company. Every device becomes an AI device. Every person with a PC has the power of AI at their fingertips.

I think about that AI device as fundamentally changing the cost economics of AI. I don’t go to the cloud to get AI. It’s right here on my device. I don’t need the cost of networking. It’s right here on my device. That’s how we think about the AI PC category. A defining moment.

It’s sort of like Centrino. Remember when Centrino came out? ‘Wow, I have Wi-Fi on my PC. I have no hotspots. What do I do with this thing?’ All of a sudden, productivity went from the defining use case to ‘the internet’ and opening up all of connectivity and how radical was that?

This is more important. And [research firm] IDC forecast that half the market will be AI PCs by the next year and 100 percent by the end of the decade.

We have already shipped 20 million AI PC devices, building an ecosystem that’s second to none. We couldn’t imagine doing that more prominently and more aggressively than with our longtime partners at Lenovo, and my longtime friend “YY.”

We’ve been through a lot together in 20-plus years. … We’ve engineered. We’ve innovated and we’ve challenged each other. At the heart of that has been the x86 architecture and the cornerstone of our partnership for decades.

Some have said, ‘Is the x86 done?’ I’ll tell you rumors of its death are severely exaggerated.

We are alive and well, and the x86 is thriving. We think of it as one of the most significant periods of innovation in front of us. We see the x86 architecture as this foundation of computing for decades that is about to go through a period of customization, expansion and scalability. The opportunities that AI will present and our ecosystem are robust and growing.

Intel and AMD announced the x86 ecosystem advisory group. And for that, Lisa and Pat agreed on something.

Who’d have thunk?

We really think of this as perfect timing. What better stage to do it on than the Lenovo stage? I’m on here with YY. Lisa will be coming up in a minute. The advisory group brings together leaders from across the ecosystem to shape the future of the x86 to simplify software development. To ensure interoperability and interface consistency. To provide developers with standard architecture, tools, instruction sets. A clear view of the future. The value of a thriving ecosystem is greater than ever. The advantage in this era of AI and 3-D composition of chips ushers in a new category of innovation around systems and new workloads.

And we welcome Lenovo to that group and others. Tim Sweeney [founder and CEO of Epic Games]. Broadcom. VMware. Google. Microsoft. Oracle. Red Hat. The advisory group sees this foundational role the x86 plays, the foundational role to the future of the data center.

We’re going to continue to drive a flexible, open and cost-effective x86 future together. It’s at the heart of our networking solutions. It’s at the heart of our data center solutions. It’s also what enables us to truly say, ‘AI everywhere.’

AMD’s Lisa Su

I’ve been in this industry for the last 30-plus years. AI is truly the most important technology that I’ve seen in my career. The most amazing part of it is we’re still in the early, early days, but what we see is the pace of innovation is moving faster than anything we have ever seen. Frankly, you might say we’ve made more progress in the last two years than we have in the past 10.

We’ve heard a lot already about the excitement around AI and what this new era of AI really brings. I view this as an opportunity for us to really bring AI to solve the world’s most important challenges.

AMD and Lenovo have a very, very unique partnership. So when you look across our portfolio, it’s about CPUs, GPUs, AI PCs, networking, all of those elements. Together with Lenovo, we’re really creating all those solutions.

You actually heard from one of our other partners. Intel. Pat was on stage. He mentioned our x86 advisory group. That is something that tells you just how unique a time this is in technology.

At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is accelerate compute and accelerate the adoption of compute. The x86 has been the foremost leader and architect over the last 40 years. The idea is AMD and Intel bringing together all these founding members can really accelerate the pace of innovation going forward.

Last week we announced our AMD Epyc processor. It is the best CPU for cloud, enterprise and AI. We’re really building on our strong partnership across the data center ecosystem, including Lenovo, to deliver these solutions to transform data centers.

If you look at the growth that people need, if you look at the compute power that people need, you really need the best. We love what we are delivering to Cloudflare, PayPal and many other customers to bring the best technology to the market.

The fact of the matter is everyone wants more AI compute.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang

We support the x86. The x86 is very important to us. We support it for PCs, workstations, data centers. And so the fact that the architecture was fragmenting isn’t good for the industry, so I love what they’re doing. Pulling it together and making sure that x86 remains x86. Otherwise, it’s not x86 anymore so I think it’s really terrific what they’re doing.