AMD is making a big bet on the future of AI hardware. The Santa Clara chip designer announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Toronto-based startup Taalas, a company taking an unconventional approach to inference by burning AI models directly into custom silicon. As the costs and power demands of running trained AI models (inference) continue to rise, AMD envisions bypassing traditional hardware bottlenecks via specialized inference chips. Turning The AI Model Into The ComputerExcited to announce our agreement to acquire @taalas_inc. Taalas was founded in 2023 by Ljubisa Bajic, an AMD alumnus and former CEO of AI chip design firm Tenstorrent.