Rumor
Alibaba purchases 50,000 MI308 units
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 at 06:48 AM
Alibaba has reportedly purchased 50,000 units of the MI308 accelerator, despite claims regarding its performance levels.
Context
Alibaba is reportedly finalizing a purchase of 40,000 to 50,000 units of AMD’s MI308 AI accelerators, marking one of the largest deals for Western silicon in China since export restrictions tightened. Emerging in late December 2025, the agreement highlights the continued reliance of Chinese cloud giants on U.S. architecture to scale their infrastructure. The MI308 is a downgraded, China-specific variant designed to meet regulatory performance caps while providing the massive throughput required for inference and enterprise AI services.
The deal represents a strategic win for AMD, validating its strategy to maintain a footprint in China through a newly established framework requiring a 15% fee to the U.S. government on approved sales. While the chip's performance is intentionally limited compared to flagship models to ensure compliance, Alibaba’s massive procurement suggests a critical need to bolster its Alibaba Cloud and Qwen model ecosystems. This order could lead to upward revenue revisions for AMD's data center segment heading into 2026.
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