AMD: Pioneering the Future of High-Performance Computing

AMD: Pioneering the Future of High-Performance Computing
AMD Success Story

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The modern economy runs on technologically advanced semiconductors that are the brains of millions of devices, from space vehicles to computers, smartphones, video games, and appliances.

The semiconductor industry's global market size was $527.88 billion in 2021 and is estimated to grow to $1,380.79 billion in 2029, with a CAGR of 12.2%. As semiconductor applications proliferate, semiconductor manufacturing units continue to prosper.

Semiconductor market size worldwide from 2002 to 2022
Semiconductor market size worldwide from 2002 to 2022

Several companies worldwide compete to produce smaller, cheaper, and faster chips to manufacture powerful and affordable technology products. AMD is one of the world's most impressive semiconductor companies offering people technologically advanced and innovative computing and gaming products.

Read further to uncover everything about AMD- its startup story, founders, funding, investments, products, challenges faced, acquisitions, and more.

AMD – Company Highlights

Company Name AMD
Headquarters Santa Clara, California, United States
Sector Semiconductor
Founders Jerry Sanders, Edwin Turney, Jack Gifford, John Carey, Sven Simonsen, Frank Botte, Ray Davis, Jim Giles
Founded In 1969
Revenue $165.3B (2022)
Website Amd.com

AMD - About
AMD - Founders and Team
AMD - Startup Story
AMD - Mission and Vision
AMD - Business Model
AMD - Products and Services
AMD - Challenged Faced
AMD - Funding and Investments
AMD - Mergers and Acquisitions
AMD - Patents and Trademarks
AMD - Growth
AMD - Partners
AMD - Awards and Achievements
AMD - Competitors
AMD - Future Plans

AMD - About

Advanced Micro Devices, popularly recognized as AMD, is an American multinational semiconductor company. For over 50 years, it has driven innovation in high-performance and adaptive computing, graphics, video gaming, and visualization technologies for businesses and consumer markets.

AMD serves worldwide with its offices in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, South & Central America, and Asia Pacific. This public-based company services millions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses, and cutting-edge scientific research institutions worldwide, improving how they live, work, and play.

AMD - Founders and Team

Jerry Sanders and seven other technology experts founded AMD. Walter Jeremiah (Jerry) Sanders III, an American businessman and engineer attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and graduated with a Bachelor of Science.

Before co-founding AMD, he worked for the Douglas Aircraft Company, Motorola, and Fairchild Semiconductor.

Jerry Sanders - Co-founder, AMD
Jerry Sanders - Co-founder, AMD

The co-founders who contributed to the company's establishment are:

  • Edwin Turney
  • Jack Gifford
  • John Carey
  • Frank Botte
  • Ray Davis
  • Jim Giles
  • Sven Simonsen

AMD operates under the guidance of Lissa Su (President, Chair & CEO) and Mark Papermaster (CTO). Currently, its employee strength is over 25,000.

AMD - Startup Story

When working as director of marketing at Fairchild, Jerry Sanders grew frustrated with the increasing lack of support, flexibility, and opportunity with the organization and later left it to commence his own semiconductor company. He and his seven colleagues from Fairchild incorporated AMD on May 1, 1969.

In 1970, AMD released its first product and went public after two years. The company started producing computer chips in the mid-1970s. It began supplying second-source chips for Intel Corporation in 1982, and the agreement ended in 1986. In 1991, the company launched the Am386 microprocessor family and introduced the Athlon processor in 2000.

In 2008, AMD announced its plan to split the organization into - microprocessor designing unit and a manufacturing unit. The company further restructured into two parts - computing and graphics in 2014. AMD was established as the first major hardware manufacturer to join the Blockchain Game Alliance in December 2019.

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AMD - Mission and Vision

AMD aims to build great products to accelerate next-generation computing experiences. Moreover, the company's vision statement is, 'High-performance and adaptive computing is transforming our lives.'

AMD - Business Model

AMD is involved in designing and producing computer processors, graphic processors, and other computer-related components. Moreover, the company reports under four business segments, i.e., Data Center, Gaming, Client, and Embedded.

AMD - Products and Services

AMD has diverse product offerings, including central processing units, graphics processing units, chipsets, microprocessors, systems-on-chip (SoCs), motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers, embedded processors, solid-state drivers, drivers, and TV accessories.

Moreover, the company offers Workloads, Deployments, Network, Infrastructure, and Storage solutions to Data Centers & Cloud. In addition, it provides Gaming, Technologies, and Systems support.

AMD - Challenged Faced

AMD and Intel have been involved in multiple legal battles over the three and a half decades of the license agreement. Moreover, at the beginning of 2010, the company's overall financial position was tenuous, impacted by the 2008-09 recession.

Intel | American multinational corportaion | Company Profile |
Founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, Intel created world’s first commercial microprocessor chip. Know more about it’s business model, success story etc

Even it laid off 1100 jobs worldwide at the end of 2009. In October 2012, the company announced an additional layoff round that represented 15% of its workforce in the face of declining revenues.

AMD - Funding and Investments

AMD has undertaken 1 funding round, i.e., Post-IP Equity Round, on March 2, 2023, and Daniel Loeb funded it. Moreover, it has made the following 7 investments:

Date Organization Name Funding Round Money Raised Lead Investor
June 25, 2020 W3BCLOUD Convertible Note $20.5 million -
October 23, 2014 Soft Machines Private Equity Round $125 million -
January 29, 2013 InContext Solutions Series C $6.4 million -
December 31, 2011 InContext Solutions Series B $1.5 million -
October 20, 2011 BlueStacks Series B $5.6 million -
June 9, 2011 ViVu Series B - -
June 30, 2000 eHitex Private Equity Round $100 million -

AMD - Mergers and Acquisitions

AMD has acquired 7 companies, and these are:

Company Announced Date Price
AMD Pensando April 4, 2022 $1.9 billion
Xilinx October 27, 2020 $35 billion
Nitero April 10, 2017 -
HiAlgo June 29, 2016 -
SeaMicro February 29, 2012 $334 million
ATI Technologies July 24, 2006 $5.4 billion
Alchemy Semiconductor February 6, 2022 -

AMD - Patents and Trademarks

AMD's intellectual property includes 5,215 registered patents, primarily categorized into the 'Computing; Calculating' class. Moreover, the company is registered with 121 trademarks, and 'Scientific and Electric Apparatus and Instruments' is the most popular class.

AMD - Growth

AMD's estimated annual revenue in 2022 is $14.8 billion ($591,799 per employee). In January 2022, its valuation stood at $165.3 billion. Moreover, the employee count elevated by 23% last year, and monthly website visits grew by 7.36%, with 28,935,594 visits.

How Chip Giant AMD Finally Caught Intel

AMD - Partners

AMD has 37 partners, of which 22 are technology partners, and 15 are channel partners. Some of them are:

  • Adobe
  • ASRock
  • ASUS
  • Biostar
  • Gigabyte
  • MSI
  • PowerColor
  • Sapphire
  • Vastarmor
  • XFX
  • Yeston

AMD - Awards and Achievements

AMD has won multiple prestigious awards:

  • 'CPU of the Year award in 2018 for AMD Ryzen 7 2700X by Trusted Reviews Awards
  • 'Value CPU of the Year award in 2018 for AMD Ryzen 5 2600 by Trusted Reviews Awards
  • 'Company of the Year award at PCR Awards 2018 in London
  • 'Brand of the Year award in 2018 by Trusted Reviews Awards

AMD - Competitors

Some of its main competitors are:

  • Intel
  • Analog Devices
  • Synaptics
  • Synopsys
  • STMicroelectronics
  • Qualcomm
  • NVIDIA

AMD - Future Plans

In 2023, AMD expects to take on 5 different SOCs. It will combine all-new design winds and refreshed 2022 systems based on what the laptop builder is looking for. Moreover, the company plans to release Zen 5-based CPUs in 2024.

FAQs

What does AMD stand for?

AMD stands for Advanced Micro Devices.

What is AMD and what does it do?

AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company. For over 50 years, it has driven innovation in high-performance and adaptive computing, graphics, video gaming, and visualization technologies for businesses and consumer markets.

Who are the main competitors of AMD?

Some of AMD's main competitors are:

  • Intel
  • Analog Devices
  • Synaptics
  • Synopsys
  • STMicroelectronics
  • Qualcomm
  • NVIDIA

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