--- title: AMD's CTO on why agentic AI needs more CPUs | daily.dev description: AMD CTO Mark Papermaster argues that agentic AI workloads demand significantly more CPU resources than traditional AI inference — roughly four times more —... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/amd-s-cto-on-why-agentic-ai-needs-more-cpus-pg2zfmmvj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: AMD's CTO on why agentic AI needs more CPUs | daily.dev og:description: AMD CTO Mark Papermaster argues that agentic AI workloads demand significantly more CPU resources than traditional AI inference — roughly four times more —... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/amd-s-cto-on-why-agentic-ai-needs-more-cpus-pg2zfmmvj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Pg2ZFmmvJ.png og:image:alt: AMD's CTO on why agentic AI needs more CPUs og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # AMD's CTO on why agentic AI needs more CPUs **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary AMD CTO Mark Papermaster argues that agentic AI workloads demand significantly more CPU resources than traditional AI inference — roughly four times more — because orchestrating multiple agents, managing context, and coordinating sub-agents all run on CPUs before GPU matrix math kicks in. This dynamic partly explains AMD's stock surge from ~$200 to ~$500 and its push toward a trillion-dollar valuation. AMD's strategy has shifted from selling individual chips to selling optimized full-stack systems, exemplified by the $4.9bn ZT Systems acquisition and the upcoming Helios rack-scale AI system packing 72 Instinct GPUs alongside server CPUs. AMD is also betting on openness via its ROCm software stack and open rack standards, positioning itself against Nvidia's more closed ecosystem, particularly targeting European customers seeking sovereign AI infrastructure. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu), [#computing](https://daily.dev/tags/computing), [#amd](https://daily.dev/tags/amd), [#agentic-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/agentic-ai), [#ai-infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/amd-s-cto-on-why-agentic-ai-needs-more-cpus-pg2zfmmvj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"AMD's CTO on why agentic AI needs more CPUs","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/amd-s-cto-on-why-agentic-ai-needs-more-cpus-pg2zfmmvj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/amd-s-cto-on-why-agentic-ai-needs-more-cpus-pg2zfmmvj"},"datePublished":"2026-07-09T16:59:24.793Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T17:36:11.120Z","description":"AMD CTO Mark Papermaster argues that agentic AI workloads demand significantly more CPU resources than traditional AI inference — roughly four times more —...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1b3b2f3fe420eae8af377e636c9a0f40?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1b3b2f3fe420eae8af377e636c9a0f40?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/amd-s-cto-on-why-agentic-ai-needs-more-cpus-pg2zfmmvj","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"gpu,computing,amd,agentic-ai,ai-infrastructure","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"AMD's CTO on why agentic AI needs more CPUs"}]} ```