Is Baidu Dumping NVIDIA for AMD?

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and its mass adoption in the tech world has caused a paradigm shift that many companies are feeling -- NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of these developments. Researchers quickly learned that the same functionality that graphics processing units (GPUs) offer for rendering images in gaming also makes them ideal for AI applications. The ability to process vast stores of data at lightning speeds made GPUs critical to early AI research.

NVIDIA has consistently dominated the market for high-end processors, making it the obvious choice for training AI systems. Chinese search giant Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) has one of the most advanced AI programs in China and has long been a user of NVIDIA GPUs. The companies recently announced a far-reaching AI partnership covering everything from cloud computing to self-driving cars.

That's why it came as something of a surprise when Baidu also announced a collaboration with NVIDIA rival Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) "on optimizing software for AMD Radeon Instinct GPUs in Baidu datacenters."

Source: Fool.com