AMD Acquires AI Startup MK1 to Accelerate AI Strategy

On November 11, U.S. semiconductor giant AMD announced the completion of its acquisition of AI inference startup MK1, marking another strategic move in AMD's expanding presence across the artificial intelligence landscape. The deal aims to strengthen AMD's capabilities in high-speed inference and enterprise-grade AI software infrastructure.

MK1 is led by Paul Merolla, co-founder of Neuralink, whose team brings extensive experience in AI inference technology. Merolla previously co-led Neuralink's chip design and algorithm development for decoding brain activity. MK1's team also includes experts from Meta, Tesla, and Apple, and their proprietary Flywheel technology — optimized for AMD hardware — currently processes over one trillion tokens per day.

Merolla said joining AMD represents "the right next step" for MK1's technology and mission, noting that AMD's resources and platform will accelerate MK1's large-scale deployment. The startup's technology integrates closely with AMD's Instinct GPU memory architecture, delivering efficient, accurate, and fully traceable AI inference performance.

The acquisition reinforces AMD's broader AI strategy, which has seen a series of recent investments to bolster its software and hardware synergy. In August 2023, AMD spent $4.9 billion to acquire server maker ZT Systems, enhancing its development of rack-scale systems powered by Instinct GPUs. Later, in October 2024, AMD sold ZT's manufacturing arm to Sanmina for $3 billion, while retaining its design and support teams.

In addition, AMD made several smaller acquisitions this year totaling $36 million, including Enosemi (a silicon photonics networking chip developer), Untether AI's engineering team from Canada, and compiler startup Brium.

According to AMD's latest financial report, Q3 revenue reached $9.25 billion, up 36% year-over-year, with a net profit of $1.2 billion (up 61%). The company projects Q4 revenue to reach $9.6 billion, surpassing market expectations. AMD also highlighted its collaboration with OpenAI, with an initial deployment of 1 GW of Instinct MI450 GPUs scheduled for late 2026, as part of a 6 GW compute partnership. CEO Lisa Su noted that AMD expects ample supply capacity through 2027–2028, with AI-related revenue potentially hitting tens of billions by 2027.

So far this year, AMD's stock price has doubled, reaching $243.98 per share and a market capitalization of $397.2 billion. With its continuous push in AI technologies and ecosystem partnerships, AMD is positioning itself as a major force driving the next wave of intelligent computing.