SuperMicro to ship H15 servers powered by AMD

Super Micro Computer (Supermicro) has began shipping its new H15 servers powered by AMD’s sixth-generation EPYC 9006 processors. The company also raised its revenue target for fiscal 2027 to as much as $82 billion, due to the increasing demand for AI data center equipment.

The launch came a day after AMD released the new chips on November 10. The processors, known as Venice, use AMD’s new Zen 6 design. Supermicro confirmed that customers have already started receiving the servers.

More than 20 new systems for AI

Supermicro said its H15 lineup includes more than 20 different systems. These systems cover servers, storage, workstations and GPU platforms.

The new servers are made for cloud companies and businesses that need powerful computers. They can also run agentic AI systems, which can complete several tasks with little human help.

Each processor socket is capable of supporting up to 256 cores and 512 threads, helping the servers handle many tasks at the same time.

The servers use AMD’s SP7 and SP8 sockets and come with either one or two processors. They are available in several models, including Hyper, CloudDC, GrandTwin, FlexTwin, Petascale and SuperBlade.

The new servers also have faster memory and connections to help them move data more quickly. They use 16-channel DDR5-8000 memory, which can handle about 1.6 terabytes of data per second for each processor socket. They also have PCIe 6.0 connections with up to 96 lanes for moving data between parts of the system.

Each socket can use up to 600 watts of power and produce a lot of heat. To prevent overheating, Supermicro offers servers that use either air or liquid to stay cool.

Faster servers with lower profits

Supermicro says its new H15 servers have up to 33% more processing cores than older models. They can also move data twice as fast through PCIe connections and handle memory data 2.6 times faster.

The company says the servers can produce up to 1.8 times as much AI-generated text per second when running large AI models compared with servers using older AMD chips.

The new processors also offer about 1.7 times better overall performance compared to the previous generation.

Supermicro added that its 2U Hyper and CloudDC servers also broke several performance records in SPEC CPU tests.

However, these performance figures are completely based on Supermicro’s own tests against older AMD systems. Supermicro did not say how many H15 servers it had shipped, who bought them or how much money it made from them.

The launch comes as Supermicro struggles to make as much profit from its sales. The company made $19.9 billion in revenue in the quarter ended September 30, above the $16.3 billion analysts expected, according to Yahoo Finance.

However, its gross profit margin dropped from 17.5% to 12.7%. Supermicro stated that this was because more of its sales came from large AI data center projects, which earn less profit than sales to other businesses and distributors.

More AMD-powered systems on the way

Supermicro is also developing two larger AMD-based systems called Helios and Helion.

Helios is built to train large AI models. It uses AMD EPYC processors, AMD Pensando networking technology and up to 72 AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs. Helion also uses AMD EPYC processors but is designed to link several servers together to handle tasks that need a lot of computing power.

Neither system is included in the current H15 shipments. Supermicro plans to release both later with AMD, according to Silicon Report.

Supermicro shares rose more than 6% in early trading after the company launched its new servers and raised its revenue forecast, Yahoo Finance reported. But the stock was still down about 24% over the past year, trading near $29 compared with its June high of $51.40.

Analysts remain divided

On November 10, Susquehanna raised its price target for Supermicro shares from $15 to $18 but kept its Negative rating because it still considered the stock too expensive, according to BigGo Finance.

Other analysts had different opinions. On November 4, Rosenblatt kept its Buy rating and $57 price target, while BofA Securities kept its Underperform rating and $39 target.

Overall, analysts have a Hold rating on Supermicro shares, with an average price target of about $36.64.

Supermicro is also facing questions over reports that servers using Nvidia chips were rented to China’s Moonshot AI despite US export restrictions.

Regulators are looking into the claims, according to a Yahoo Finance report. Supermicro has said it does not do business with the companies involved.