If it proves true, AMD will be bringing AI horsepower to the average system in the same way discrete GPUs once supercharged gaming rigs.

While the concept isn’t entirely new, with Qualcomm already offering its Cloud AI 100 Ultra for inferencing workloads, AMD appears to be eyeing the same direction, this time with home users and desktop tinkerers in mind.

According to CRN, AMD client CPU boss Rahul Tikoo said the company is watching the space closely and hinted it could move quickly if needed.

“It’s a very new set of use cases, so we’re watching that space carefully, but we do have solutions if you want to get into that space, we will be able to,” Tikoo said.

AMD already has a foot in the AI door thanks to its Strix Point and Strix Halo APUs, which pack XDNA-powered engines and are capable of running large language models with up to 128 billion parameters. While that’s impressive for laptops and compact PCs, there’s currently no standalone solution for desktops wanting in on the AI action.

The lack of high-performance AI add-in cards for consumers has left a wide open space that AMD clearly wants to exploit. Whether there’s a real market beyond a few early adopters or AI-curious developers is anyone’s guess, but AMD seems happy to punt on it.

With Intel also stuffing more NPU muscle into its Lunar Lake chips and with AI now the buzzword du jour, AMD’s strategy seems less about waiting and more about quietly preparing to shove a card into your PCIe slot. Whether it will catch on or just become another curiosity next to those PhysX cards from the mid-2000s remains to be seen.