On 31 August AMD, Cisco and HUMAIN announced that AMD Instinct MI355X systems are live in Saudi Arabia and serving customers. The next phase is a plan: up to 250 megawatts on the new MI400 generation from 2027. Their joint venture's target remains up to 1 gigawatt by 2030.
- What is live: MI355X, EPYC processors and Cisco networking with 800G optics, sold as compute for rent.
- The plan: up to 250 MW on MI400, with buildout from 2027 and first capacity in the second half of that year.
- The 1 GW by 2030 promise is repeated, not delivered.
Verbs first. In this announcement only one describes something done: the systems are live.
The rest are plans, expects, remains on track. That does not make them lies. It makes them promises, to be measured later.
Why the word open keeps repeating
In the announcement open sounds like a chorus: open models, open software, open network. As we read it, behind the repetition is a commercial calculation. Sovereign AI is sold on the promise of greater control over where the customer's data lives and how its models are customized, and open software is how AMD buys into that promise.
The test comes in the second half of 2027. That is when we will see whether the 250 megawatts are plugged in or moved to the next announcement.