Advanced Micro Devices $(AMD)$ CEO Lisa Su has begun her latest visit to China, where she touted the company's role in supporting the artificial intelligence $(AI)$ development of the country's top industry players, including DeepSeek and Alibaba Group Holding.

AMD chips were compatible with DeepSeek's AI models and Alibaba's Qwen series, which had allowed the Chinese companies to develop their technologies faster, Su said at an AMD conference for AI personal computers in Beijing on Tuesday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

She noted that AMD had observed consistent growth in DeepSeek's model performance with the team's constant optimisation. Su - who was joined by representatives from Lenovo Group, Asus and Microsoft - emphasised AMD's commitment to collaborating with the open-source community, as well as the company's efforts to build an open and developer-friendly AI ecosystem.

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The California-based semiconductor firm has been promoting its infrastructural support for DeepSeek's low-cost, high-performance models since their recent launches grabbed headlines from Silicon Valley to Wall Street. AMD has posted instructions for running DeepSeek's V3 and R1 open-source models locally on its Instinct graphics processing units.

AMD CEO Lisa Su says the company has been supporting DeepSeek since its inception. Photo: Xinhua alt=AMD CEO Lisa Su says the company has been supporting DeepSeek since its inception. Photo: Xinhua>

AMD is considered Nvidia's main competitor in the market for AI chips. While DeepSeek's highly efficient models initially sparked fears of a plunge in AI chip demand, companies in China have continued to stock up on processors to support their AI development and cloud computing services.

Su visited the Beijing headquarters of Lenovo on Monday, as the Chinese computer giant announced that its AMD-powered AI large-model training server, the Wentian WA7785a G3, could achieve a throughput of 6708 tokens per second when deploying DeepSeek's full-scale 71-billion-parameter model with a single server.

On Tuesday, AMD also showcased a slew of new products, including the Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor for desktops and the Ryzen 9000HX series processors for video-gaming laptops.

The company said the number of independent software vendor partners in its Chinese AI Application Innovation Alliance, launched in March 2024, had surpassed 100 and was projected to reach 170 by the end of this year.

AMD's revenue in mainland China and Hong Kong reached US$6.2 billion last year, accounting for 24 per cent of its total sales.

Su's trip to China is expected to last at least a week, during which she will take part in the China Development Forum, according to a report by Chinese tech media outlet TMT Post. AMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The flagship economic conference, scheduled for March 23 and 24 at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, will be attended by dozens of foreign CEOs as China seeks to attract international investment amid heightened geopolitical tensions, according to Reuters. President Xi Jinping is set to meet with a select group of foreign business executives after the forum.

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