Kodiak AI Inc. (NASDAQ: KDK) announced a collaboration with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) to embed AMD EPYC Series processors into its seventh-generation autonomous truck hardware platform. The integration marks the first use of AMD EPYC processors in a driverless truck system, according to the company.
The processors will aggregate and pre-process sensor data from LiDAR, cameras, and radars, while supporting route-planning tasks for Kodiak’s autonomous driving software, Kodiak Driver. AMD EPYC processors are designed to handle high clock speeds, enabling faster data processing with reduced energy consumption compared to prior-generation hardware. The solution targets latency-sensitive workloads such as sensor processing, localization, and route planning that are difficult to parallelize.
Kodiak operates an uncrewed fleet in the Permian Basin and plans to launch autonomous trucks on public highways later in 2026. The company deployed autonomous driving technology into customer-owned driverless semi-trucks in 2024. Its Kodiak Driver platform is currently deployed in long-haul trucking, industrial freight, and defense sectors under a Driver-as-a-Service model, supported by partnerships with Atlas Energy Solutions, IKEA, J.B. Hunt, Bridgestone, Werner Enterprises, C.R. England, General Dynamics Land Systems, and Roehl Transport.
Don Burnette, Founder and CEO of Kodiak, said the partnership leverages AMD’s high-performance CPU technology to meet the computational demands of physical AI systems, which require rapid processing of large sensor data volumes alongside increasingly sophisticated AI workloads.
