AMD unveils AI accelerators and laptop chips at CES 2026

Chipmaker AMD announced a range of new processors at CES 2026, including AI accelerators for data centers and refreshed laptop chips.

AMD CEO Lisa Su unveiled an extensive lineup of new AI products at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. The centerpiece was the "Helios" rack-scale platform, which AMD positions as a blueprint for the next era of AI computing.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman appeared on stage, emphasizing that chip advances are critical for OpenAI's massive computing needs. AMD closed a deal with OpenAI in October that should bring the company billions in additional annual revenue. According to AMD, the first MI400 series chips will ship this year.

Full MI400 lineup arrives with MI500 on the horizon

For the first time, AMD revealed the complete Instinct MI400 series portfolio. The flagship MI455X powers the Helios platform. The company also introduced the MI440X, designed for on-premise enterprise deployments. This chip handles training, fine-tuning, and inference in a compact eight-GPU form factor that fits into existing infrastructure.

The previously announced MI430X will power supercomputers like Discovery at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Alice Recoque, France's first exascale supercomputer.

Looking ahead to 2027, Su previewed the MI500 series. The next generation runs on CDNA 6 architecture, uses a 2nm process, and features HBM4E memory. AMD claims the MI500 series will deliver up to 1,000 times the AI performance of the MI300X, which launched in 2023.

AMD remains Nvidia's strongest competitor but hasn't matched its success yet. Nvidia generates tens of billions in quarterly revenue from AI chips and unveiled its Vera Rubin platform the same day.

Gorgon Point brings faster clocks to laptops

Alongside the data center processors, AMD announced the Ryzen AI 400 series for laptops, internally called "Gorgon Point." The seven chips should arrive in the first quarter of 2026.

The Gorgon Point chips still use TSMC's N4X process and combine Zen 5 cores with smaller Zen 5c cores. Improvements over the previous generation mostly come down to higher clock speeds and faster memory.

AMD also announced the first Copilot+ certified desktop processor. The company didn't share specific specs or release dates. The chip belongs to the Gorgon Point family and will include Zen 5 CPU cores, RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, and an XDNA 2 NPU.

The company also introduced Ryzen AI Embedded processors, a new portfolio for edge AI applications. The P100 and X100 series target automotive digital cockpits, smart healthcare, and autonomous systems including humanoid robotics.

New gaming chips for handhelds could cut prices in half

For the Ryzen AI Max series, also known as Strix Halo, AMD added two new variants: the Ryzen AI Max+ 392 with twelve cores and the Max+ 388 with eight cores. Both keep the full 40 RDNA 3.5 graphics units for 60 teraflops.

AMD developed these chips based on specific customer requests for gaming SKUs. Current devices with these processors, like the GPD Win 5 handheld or the Framework Desktop, cost around $2,000. AMD manager Rahul Tikoo suggested that systems with the new chips could land between $1,000 and $1,500, though current global RAM shortages might affect pricing.