AMD Unveils New EPYC Venice and Verano CPUs with Up to 256 Cores and Instinct MI500 GPU for Future Data Centers | Gpu vs cpu performance comparison | Computer hardware components and their functions | Hardware catalog | Turtles AI

AMD has announced data center roadmaps: 2nm EPYC “Venice” CPUs (up to 256 Zen6C cores) and Instinct MI400 GPUs will debut in 2026; EPYC “Verano” on Zen7 and Instinct MI500 will arrive in 2027.

Key points:

• 2nm TSMC EPYC “Venice” (Zen6/Zen6C), up to 256 cores and 1GB L3 cache, SP7/SP8 socket support.
• Instinct MI400 GPU in 2026: double the performance of MI350, with up to 432GB HBM4 and ~19.6TB/s.
• EPYC “Verano” CPUs (likely Zen7) and Instinct MI500 GPUs for next-gen AI racks will arrive in 2027.
• AMD adopts annual refresh cycle to align with competitors and increase compute density in AI servers (/datacenter).

AMD has officially revealed its technological goals for the next few years in the data center and AI sector: already in 2026 the EPYC “Venice” line, based on the Zen6 architecture, will be available in standard and “dense” formats (Zen6C), offering configurations of up to 256 cores and 512 threads, supported by a gigantic L3 cache subsystem (up to 1GB, 128MB per CCD) and memory support up to 1.6TB/s. The SP7 (performance) and SP8 (density) sockets will enable configurations with 96 cores or up to 256 on the C versions.

These CPUs, built on the TSMC 2nm advanced node, will serve as the heart of the Helios platform – a rack-scale AI system due out in 2026, also equipped with Instinct MI400 GPUs (up to 10× faster than MI350 and with HBM4 from about 432GB at 19.6TB/s) and Pensando Vulcano interfaces at 800GbE.

AMD will then introduce EPYC “Verano” CPUs, likely based on Zen7, and Instinct MI500X GPUs in 2027, further boosting performance for next-generation AI racks: increased compute size and further improved compute density, thanks to a possible annual release cycle similar to the one already adopted by NVIDIA. These systems will be built with TSMC A16 technology (backend), designed to minimize power implications in large-scale systems.

AMD thus confirms an integrated strategy that includes advanced CPU architectures, next-generation AI GPUs and high-speed networking, all inserted in open-standard rack designs aimed at increasing performance per AI token and reducing costs per watt/token — declared objectives in line with the open philosophy of the Helios project and based on key partners such as Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI. 

AMD is paving the way for increasingly dense and high-performance AI data centers: between 2026 and 2027 the market will see a significant leap in CPU and GPU computational capabilities, thanks to advanced process nodes, modular rack design and annual innovation cycles.

A coherent and articulated vision, focused on hardware-software integration and scalable infrastructures, without drawing conclusions on the future impact.