AMD debuts a 400GbE AI network card with an 800GbE PCIe Gen6 NIC coming in 2026, but will the industry be ready?
TechRadarThursday, June 19, 2025 at 5:31:00 PM
AMD is stepping up its game in high-speed networking with the launch of its Pollara 400 AI network card, which supports 400GbE (gigabit Ethernet) and Ultra Ethernet—a big deal for AI workloads. But they’re not stopping there: they’ve already teased an even faster 800GbE card, the Vulcano, slated for 2026 to match next-gen PCIe Gen6 hardware. The big question? Whether the rest of the industry can keep pace with these blistering speeds.
Editor’s Note: Faster networking is critical for AI clusters, where moving data between GPUs and servers can be a bottleneck. AMD’s push into ultra-high-speed NICs (network interface cards) signals a race to feed AI’s hunger for bandwidth. But hardware doesn’t exist in a vacuum—if data centers, software, and other components lag behind, these cutting-edge cards might hit a wall. For tech watchers, it’s a peek into how the infrastructure behind AI is evolving (or struggling to).
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