Advanced Micro Devices

Advanced Micro Devices
Name	Advanced Micro Devices
Founded	01 May 1969
Founders	Jerry Sanders, John Carey
Hq location city	Santa Clara, California
Hq location country	United States
Key people	Lisa Su (Chair & CEO), Victor Peng (President)
Industry	Semiconductors
Products	Microprocessors, Graphics processing units (GPUs), Systems on a chip (SoCs), Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)
Revenue	▲ US$22.68 billion (2023)
Num employees	26,000 (2023)

Advanced Micro Devices is a prominent American multinational corporation that designs and manufactures high-performance computing, graphics, and visualization technologies. Founded in 1969, the company is a leading provider of central processing units (CPUs) for servers, personal computers, and embedded systems, as well as graphics processing units (GPUs) for gaming and professional markets. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, it is a key competitor to Intel in CPUs and Nvidia in GPUs, driving significant innovation in the semiconductor industry.

History

The company was established in 1969 by a group of executives from Fairchild Semiconductor, including Jerry Sanders and John Carey. Initially a producer of logic devices, it became a second-source manufacturer for Intel's microprocessors, notably the 8086 and 80286. A landmark legal settlement in 1995 with Intel granted it perpetual rights to the x86 microprocessor architecture, enabling its own designs like the AMD K5. The 2006 acquisition of ATI Technologies marked its entry into the graphics processing unit market. Under the leadership of Lisa Su, who became CEO in 2014, the company's fortunes transformed with the successful launches of the Zen CPU and Radeon RDNA GPU architectures, regaining significant market share in data center and client computing segments.

Products

Its core product lines include x86 microprocessors under the Ryzen brand for consumer personal computers, Epyc for servers and data centers, and Athlon for budget systems. In graphics, it offers Radeon graphics processing units for desktop computers, laptops, and gaming consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The embedded and semi-custom business provides system on a chip (SoC) solutions for these consoles and other applications. Following the 2022 acquisition of Xilinx, its portfolio expanded to include field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and adaptive computing products, sold under the Xilinx brand, which are critical for 5G, automotive, and aerospace industries.

Corporate affairs

The company is led by Chair and CEO Lisa Su, with Victor Peng serving as President following the Xilinx integration. Its headquarters are in Santa Clara, California, with major research, design, and manufacturing operations globally, including facilities in Austin, Orlando, and Shanghai. Like most semiconductor companies, it operates as a fabless manufacturer, relying on partners like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and GlobalFoundries for semiconductor fabrication. Its corporate structure includes divisions focused on the Data Center Group, Client Group, Gaming Group, and Embedded Group.

Competition

It engages in intense competition across its markets. In central processing units for servers and personal computers, its primary rival is Intel, with both companies vying on performance, power efficiency, and manufacturing process technology. In the discrete graphics market, it competes directly with Nvidia, particularly in the high-performance gaming and artificial intelligence accelerator segments. The acquisition of Xilinx also placed it in competition with Intel's Altera in the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) sector. Additional competitors include Arm-based designs from companies like Apple and Ampere Computing in certain client computing and cloud computing niches.

Financial performance

The company has experienced substantial revenue growth and improved profitability since the 2017 introduction of its Zen architecture. For the 2023 fiscal year, it reported revenue of US$22.68 billion, though this represented a decrease from the previous year due to market corrections in the personal computer and gaming sectors. Key growth drivers have been its Epyc processors in the data center market and semi-custom SoCs for game consoles. Major financial milestones include its listing on the NASDAQ under the ticker AMD and its inclusion in the S&P 500 index. The all-stock acquisition of Xilinx in 2022 was one of the largest deals in semiconductor industry history.

Environmental and social impact

The company publishes annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability reports outlining its goals. Its environmental initiatives target reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and waste, aligning with broader industry efforts like the Semiconductor Climate Consortium. Socially, it runs programs like the AMD Foundation, which focuses on STEM education and scientific literacy. It has also implemented policies to increase diversity within its workforce and ensure responsible sourcing of minerals in its supply chain, in accordance with guidelines from the Responsible Business Alliance. The company's products are also cited for improving energy efficiency in large-scale data center operations.

Category:Advanced Micro Devices Category:Semiconductor companies of the United States Category:Companies based in Santa Clara, California Category:Companies listed on the NASDAQ