AMD can match Nvidia performance with software optimization, says Wafer AI CEO

Emilio Andere has a simple thesis: Nvidia’s dominance isn’t really about hardware. It’s about software. And software, unlike silicon, can be rewritten. The Wafer AI co-founder and CEO argues that AMD GPUs can match Nvidia’s performance when the code running on them is properly optimized. The numbers behind the claim In July 2026, Wafer fine-tuned Z.AI’s GLM-5.2 model to run on AMD’s MI355X GPU. The result: approximately 80% of the throughput delivered by Nvidia’s B200, at less than half the cost. Wafer’s broader pitch is that it can deliver 2 to 2.8x speedups over stock baselines across various open-source models. The startup builds AI agents that function as autonomous performance engineers, automatically optimizing GPU workloads for better throughput. Average GPU utilization in production environments sits around 20%. That means organizations are effectively burning 80% of the compute they’re paying for. From seed to Series A in five months On September 1, 2026, Wafer closed a $40 million Series A funding round co-led by Marathon and Chemistry. The deal valued the startup at over $200 million, a steep climb from its $4 million seed round completed just five months earlier in Apri...