Tech Giants Back Intel-AMD Alliance’s Fight For x86's Future

In the face of growing competition from Arm-based chip designers, the rival CPU companies say several tech giants—including Microsoft, Dell Technologies, Lenovo and HP Inc.—are joining their new advisory group to ‘shape the future of x86 and foster developer innovation.’

Intel and AMD said several tech giants are backing their new effort to expand the ecosystem for the x86 instruction set architecture at the heart of their dueling CPU businesses.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based semiconductor rivals announced on Tuesday that they plan to do so through the creation of a new x86 ecosystem advisory group that will enlist as members several tech giants—including Microsoft, Dell Technologies, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and Google—as well as Linux creator Linus Torvalds.

Other founding members include VMware parent company Broadcom, Facebook parent company Meta, Oracle, IBM-owned Red Hat and Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney.

In their joint announcement, Intel and AMD said the advisory group aims to “shape the future of x86 and foster developer innovation through a more unified set of instructions and architectural interfaces.” This is expected to “enhance compatibility, predictability and consistency across x86 product offerings,” the two companies added.

Noting that “x86 has served as the bedrock of modern computing” for more than 40 years, Intel and AMD said industry-wide collaboration around the future of the instruction set architecture is warranted because of evolving developments such as dynamic AI workloads, custom chiplet designs and advancements in 3-D chip packaging and system architectures.

“We are on the cusp of one of the most significant shifts in the x86 architecture and ecosystem in decades—with new levels of customization, compatibility and scalability needed to meet current and future customer needs,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in a statement.

New Group Forms Amid Arm’s Ascent In PCs And Cloud

At the same time, Intel’s and AMD’s x86 CPU businesses have faced a growing threat from the Arm instruction set architecture, which has enabled consumer tech giant Apple, mobile chip designer Qualcomm and cloud computing giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google to design their own CPUs for the PC and cloud markets. Meanwhile, another mobile chip designer, MediaTek, has publicly stated its intention to introduce Arm-based CPUs for Windows PCs and is reportedly working with Nvidia to do so.

This has intensified competition for Intel and AMD. For example, both companies have responded in the past year to the high core densities and high efficiency of Arm-based server CPUs with their own high-core-count, efficiency-focused processors, with AMD debuting its EPYC “Bergamo” chips last year and Intel more recently launching its Xeon 6 E-core chips.

While growing competition in the CPU market from AMD and Arm-based chip designers has contributed to Intel’s falling fortunes and massive spending cuts, AMD has leaned on the competitiveness of its CPUs to take x86 market share from Intel over the past several years and expand into adjacent product areas such as chips for networking and AI acceleration.

“Establishing the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group will ensure that the x86 architecture continues evolving as the compute platform of choice for both developers and customers,” said AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su in a statement.

CEOs Of Microsoft, Dell, HPE, Lenovo And Others Voice Support

The leaders of several tech giants joining the x86 advisory group voiced their support, including Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella and Dell Chairman, CEO and founder Michael Dell.

“x86 has been foundational to modern computing for over four decades, and we want to ensure it continues to evolve and benefit everyone going forward,” Nadella said in a statement.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said, “Taking a pan-industry approach ensures consistent implementations, which aligns with Google’s commitment to fostering innovation and providing the best possible experience for our developers and users.”

“By simplifying and standardizing across the x86 ecosystem, we can unlock new levels of performance, efficiency, and ease of use, ultimately accelerating the development and adoption of cutting-edge technologies,” the senior Google executive added.

HPE CEO and President Antonio Neri said the group will help “shape a consistent future architecture with innovative new features that meet customers’ evolving computing needs.”

Meanwhile, HP CEO and President Enrique Lores said that “building a more efficient, secure, and customizable x86 ecosystem will help accelerate” the future of work, which requires “technology that drives growth for both employees and the companies they work for.”

“When we work together as an industry ecosystem, we all benefit, but more importantly, so do our customers,” Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said in a statement.