According to British Bank HSBC beancounters AMD is bumping the tag from $15,000 to $25,000 in a bid to stake a firmer claim in Nvidia’s turf.

While that is still cheaper than Nvidia’s Blackwell B200, it signals a shift. AMD seems confident that the MI350 can hold its own and is adjusting prices accordingly. After quarters of trailing behind Nvidia’s tightly integrated hardware and software stack, this move suggests AMD is finally ready to be taken seriously.

The AI chip race has been lopsided for ages, with Nvidia riding the AI hype wave like it invented surfing. But AMD’s latest pricing signals something is different. A 70 per cent markup doesn’t happen unless you’re pretty sure someone will pay up.

The MI350 is already claimed to be on par with Nvidia’s B200 and forms the backbone of AMD’s expanding Instinct lineup. At its "Advancing AI" event, AMD teased a raft of new kit, including the MI355X and rack-scale systems like Helios. AMD has already won deals with OpenAI and Tesla, which makes this less of a gamble and more of a calculated escalation.

AMD's 2023 to 2026 roadmap suddenly looks a lot more ambitious. What was once a polite sideshow in the AI space could soon become competition. With AMD gaining momentum and Nvidia pushing the Blackwell generation forward, the market might finally get the rivalry it's been missing.