Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

AMD said on 28 September that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire World Labs, the AI research lab led by Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock deal valued at about $8.2 billion 4.

The company expects it to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals 4. Li would join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to chair and chief executive Lisa Su 4.

AMD's filing says the number of shares is not yet known and will be set from a trading average over ten days before closing 3. AMD says the lab's models will show it how AI workloads are changing and help shape its chip roadmaps 4.

Second quarter 2026 revenue was a record $11.5 billion, up 50 percent from a year earlier, and Data Center revenue of $6.7 billion more than doubled, up 107 percent 1. Finance chief Jean Hu said Data Center was 58 percent of revenue and that AMD expects its sales to accelerate in the second half of 2026 1.

For the third quarter AMD expects revenue of approximately $13 billion, plus or minus $300 million 1. It reports those results on 3 November after the market close 11. What stays open is regulatory approval of World Labs and the final count of shares to be issued 34.

AMD was incorporated in Delaware on 1 May 1969 as a Silicon Valley start-up and became a publicly held company in 1972 8.

Revenue reached $16.4 billion in 2021 and $23.6 billion in 2022, up 44 percent, as EPYC server processors lifted Data Center revenue 64 percent 13. Part of the jump was bought: AMD completed its acquisition of Xilinx on 14 February 2022 and of Pensando on 26 May 2022 13.

Client revenue fell 10 percent that year on weak PC demand and inventory clearing across the PC supply chain 13. Operating income fell to $1.3 billion from $3.6 billion in 2021, mainly because the Xilinx purchase cost began to be written off over years, which accountants call amortization 13.

Revenue was $22.7 billion in 2023, below the $23.6 billion of 2022 1413. Data Center brought in $6.5 billion, Client $4.7 billion, Gaming $6.2 billion and Embedded $5.3 billion 14.

In 2024 revenue grew 14 percent to $25.8 billion 14. Data Center revenue rose 94 percent to $12.6 billion on sales of Instinct GPUs and EPYC server chips, and Client rose 52 percent to $7.1 billion on Ryzen processors 14. Gaming fell 58 percent to $2.6 billion on lower semi-custom revenue, the custom chips made for game consoles, and Embedded fell 33 percent to $3.6 billion as customers worked down their inventories 14.

That year AMD launched its 5th generation EPYC processors and the Ryzen AI 300 Series with a built-in neural processing unit, and set an annual cadence for new Instinct AI accelerators 14. On 9 August 2024 it completed the purchase of Silo AI, an AI lab in Finland, for $665 million in cash 8.

Revenue reached $34.6 billion in 2025 against $25.8 billion in 2024 8. Data Center rose 32 percent to $16.6 billion and Client and Gaming together rose 51 percent to $14.6 billion, while Embedded fell 3 percent to $3.5 billion 8.

A US export control on the MI308 data center GPU cost AMD about $440 million in net charges in 2025, after it reversed about $360 million once shipping began 8. In March 2025 AMD bought ZT Systems, a supplier of computing systems to very large cloud companies, for total purchase consideration of $4.4 billion 2. In October 2025 it sold ZT's manufacturing arm to Sanmina for $2.4 billion in cash plus 1,151,052 Sanmina shares, keeping the design team 82.

In October 2025 AMD also signed a product purchase agreement with OpenAI to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs, the first gigawatt on Instinct MI450 series products 8. In February 2026 it announced a similar 6-gigawatt agreement with Meta, with shipments for the first gigawatt expected to begin in the second half of 2026 10.

In the six months to 27 June 2026 revenue was $21.8 billion against $15.1 billion a year earlier 2. Second-quarter operating income of $2.0 billion compared with an operating loss of $134 million in the same quarter of 2025 2.

Data center: EPYC, Instinct, Helios

AMD sells EPYC server processors, Instinct GPU accelerators for AI training and inference, and Pensando networking chips, all aimed at data centers 8. Its Data Center segment earned $6.7 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 107 percent, with operating income of $2.1 billion against a loss of $155 million a year earlier 2. The company credits strong demand for EPYC processors and Instinct MI350 Series GPUs 2.

Helios is AMD's rack-scale product, a full server rack built around its CPUs, GPUs and networking 8. AMD says it is being deployed by Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and others 1. The 10-Q adds that AMD supplies chips used in Helios but does not manufacture or sell the completed racks, which are expected to start shipping in the second half of fiscal 2026 2.

OpenAI (October 2025) and Meta (February 2026) each intend to deploy up to 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs 2. AMD issued each a warrant for up to 160 million shares, vesting as GPU purchases are made 2. As of 27 June 2026 no tranche had vested 2.

On 22 July 2026 AMD and Anthropic announced a plan for up to 2 gigawatts of MI450 Series GPUs in Helios racks, with the first gigawatt beginning in the first half of 2027 9. AMD also committed to a strategic equity investment of up to $5 billion in Anthropic in the future 9.

PC chips: Ryzen

Client revenue, mostly Ryzen PC processors, was $3.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 23 percent 2. Units shipped rose 34 percent while the average selling price fell 6 percent 2. The line includes Ryzen 9000 processors on the Zen 5 design, X3D models with extra cache memory for gaming, and the Ryzen AI 400 series launched in January 2026 8.

KitGuru rated the Ryzen 7 9800X3D 9 out of 10 on 6 November 2024 and called its gaming performance on Auto "superb" 16. HotHardware reviewed it at a $479 MSRP, listing great gaming performance and power efficiency against only 8 cores and a price premium 17.

AMD's main rival in PC processors is Intel, with Arm-based chips a possible alternative 8.

Gaming: Radeon and game consoles

Gaming revenue was $779 million in the second quarter of 2026, down 31 percent on lower semi-custom revenue 1. Semi-custom chips are the custom designs AMD builds with a customer, and they power the Sony PlayStation 5, the Microsoft Xbox Series S and X and the Valve Steam Machine 8.

In 2025 AMD released the Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards on its RDNA 4 design 8. Nvidia is the discrete GPU market share leader, AMD says 8.

TechRadar reviewed the RX 9070 XT on 5 March 2025, found RTX 4080-level gaming performance at a $599 launch MSRP, and called it "nothing short of the graphics card everyone's been asking for" 18.

Tom's Guide, on 24 October 2025, called the RX 9070 XT "a stellar gaming GPU" but said Nvidia pulls ahead in productivity and AI use 19.

Embedded: the Xilinx line

Embedded revenue was $977 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 19 percent, with operating income of $386 million 2. The segment sells embedded processors and FPGAs, chips whose circuits customers can reconfigure, under names such as Versal and Zynq 8. Named rivals in programmable chips are Altera, Lattice Semiconductor and Microsemi 8.

Plants, suppliers and commitments

TSMC makes wafers for its server, PC, FPGA and adaptive chips, GLOBALFOUNDRIES makes some at the 12 and 14 nanometer sizes, and UMC and Samsung make programmable chips, so AMD relies on outside factories 8. Two assembly and test joint ventures with Tongfu Microelectronics affiliates provide most of AMD's packaging and testing 8.

As of 27 December 2025 AMD had about 6.8 million square feet of space, of which about 1.4 million was owned 8. Its headquarters are in Santa Clara, California, with significant operations in Austin, San Jose, Shanghai, Markham, Longmont, Dublin, Singapore, Bengaluru and Hyderabad 8. At 27 June 2026 unconditional purchase commitments were approximately $30.3 billion, and after that date AMD signed data center leases with future payments of $9.5 billion over terms of up to 16 years 2.

On 13 August 2026 AMD agreed with its underwriters to sell four series of senior notes, bonds that pay interest, due in 2029, 2031, 2033 and 2036 21.

People

Lisa Su has been president and chief executive since October 2014 and chair of the board since February 2022 12. Jean Hu has been chief financial officer since January 2023, after the same job at Marvell Technology 12. Darren Grasby has been chief sales officer since January 2025, and AMD had about 31,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2025 128.

On 19 August 2026 AMD appointed Tim Ryan, a Citi technology executive and former PwC US chair, to its board after the retirement of Joseph Householder, who served more than 11 years 20. KC McClure became chair of the Audit and Finance Committee 20.

Rivals and current problems

In the data center AMD competes mainly with Intel and Nvidia, and with Altera in programmable chips, and some of its own customers are designing their own data center chips 8. The 10-Q says a small number of customers account for a substantial part of revenue and receivables, and that losing one could hurt AMD 2.

In August 2025 US officials said they expected to receive 15 percent of revenue from licensed MI308 sales to China, though the 10-K says no regulation exists 8. In the quarter ended 27 June 2026 the 10-Q reports no material legal proceedings 2.

The umbrella, in words

AMD sells under its own brands: EPYC server processors, Instinct data center accelerators, Pensando networking, Solarflare low-latency adapters for finance, Ryzen PC processors, Radeon graphics and Alveo accelerator cards 8. The Xilinx names Virtex, Kintex, Artix, Spartan, Zynq and Versal cover its programmable chips 8.

The subsidiaries exhibit as of 27 December 2025 lists Xilinx, Inc., Pensando Systems, Inc., Solarflare Communications, Inc. and Enosemi, Inc., plus Silo AI Oy in Finland and ATI Technologies ULC in Canada 15. The exhibit does not say which are listed companies 15.

AMD owns ZT Systems' design business, kept after the sale of its manufacturing arm, and Silo AI, bought on 9 August 2024 8. It also acquired MEXT, which adds predictive memory technology, as the 4 August 2026 results release notes 1. It owns 1,151,052 Sanmina shares, received in the October 2025 sale, valued at $154 million when the sale closed 82, and it invested in two assembly and test joint ventures with Tongfu Microelectronics affiliates 8.

OpenAI and Meta each hold a warrant, a right to buy up to 160 million AMD shares, with none vested as of 27 June 2026 2. AMD committed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic in the future 9. Silicon Republic reported that World Labs raised $1bn earlier in the year in a round backed by Nvidia, AMD and Autodesk, among others 7.

Control: as of 19 March 2026 the proxy lists Vanguard with 142,442,745 shares, 8.8 percent, and BlackRock with 124,945,206, 7.7 percent 12. Both figures come from Schedule 13G amendments filed on 13 February 2024 and 1 February 2024 12. Su, who is both chair and chief executive, beneficially owned 4,305,973 shares, and all 16 directors and executive officers together 8,107,566, each under one percent 12.

For the third quarter of 2026 AMD expects revenue of approximately $13 billion, plus or minus $300 million, and non-GAAP gross margin, a measure that leaves out some accounting charges, of approximately 56 percent 1. It reports third-quarter results on 3 November 2026 after the market close, and plans to present at the UBS conference on 1 December and the Barclays conference on 9 December 11.

Jean Hu said on 4 August that AMD expects Data Center sales to accelerate in the second half of 2026, driving stronger overall revenue growth 1. Lisa Su said the company enters that half with EPYC demand accelerating, Instinct deployments scaling and Helios beginning to ramp 1.

Shipments for Meta's first gigawatt, on a custom Instinct GPU based on the MI450 design with 6th Gen EPYC "Venice" processors, are expected to begin in the second half of 2026 10. Anthropic's first gigawatt is to begin in the first half of 2027 9.

OpenAI's first gigawatt is to run on Instinct MI450 series products 8. Helios racks are expected to start shipping in the second half of fiscal 2026 2.

The World Labs purchase is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions 4. After closing the World Labs team will keep working on AI model research and Li will become AMD's chief scientist, with co-founders Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall continuing to lead the team 46. The number of AMD shares issued will be set by a trading average over the ten days ending two trading days before closing 3.

On products, AMD says it will keep an annual cadence of new Instinct AI accelerators, and it launched the MI400 Series family, including the MI455X, as noted in its August 2026 results release 81. It also extended support for Socket AM5 PC platforms through 2029 1.

On spending, AMD reported $17.4 billion of unconditional purchase commitments due in the rest of fiscal 2026 and $5.5 billion in 2027 2. Data center leases with future payments of $4.5 billion are expected to begin in the second half of fiscal 2026, and a further $9.5 billion of leases are expected to begin in 2027 and 2028 2. AMD's repurchase program allows up to $14 billion, of which $9.4 billion remained at 27 December 2025 8.

Also pending: AMD has committed to a strategic equity investment of up to $5 billion in Anthropic, with no date given beyond "in the future" 9. The warrants for OpenAI and Meta vest only as GPU purchase milestones and other conditions are met 2.

How it operates

AMD designs processors and sells them under its own brands. For data centers it sells EPYC server processors, Instinct GPU accelerators for AI, Pensando networking chips and FPGAs, chips whose circuits customers can reconfigure after purchase. For PCs it sells Ryzen processors, chipsets and Radeon graphics cards, and it designs semi-custom chips for game consoles, among them the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series S and X. Its embedded processors and adaptive chips go into aerospace and defense, cars, factories, healthcare and communications equipment. It also writes the software that runs on them, including the ROCm platform for AI training and inference. 25262728293031

Its data center chips go mainly to hyperscale data centers, the largest cloud operators, and to server makers (OEMs), contract designers and manufacturers (ODMs), system integrators and distributors; its PC chips go to PC makers, distributors and motherboard makers. No customer took 10% of revenue in 2025 or 2024, whereas in 2023 one Client and Gaming customer took 18%. Customers usually buy on purchase orders against their own forecasts, without minimum commitments. In October 2025 AMD signed a product purchase agreement with OpenAI to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs, the first gigawatt on its Instinct MI450 series, and issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million AMD shares that vests in tranches as OpenAI's GPU purchases reach milestones, among other conditions; none had vested by year end. 32333435363738

By the customer's billing location, the United States brought in 11.4 billion dollars, 32.8% of 2025 revenue; China 7.8 billion, 22.4%; Taiwan 5.2 billion, 15.0%, up 57.1%; Singapore 4.3 billion, 12.4%; and other countries 6.1 billion, 17.5%. International sales were 67% of revenue, and substantially all sales are in US dollars. 394041

AMD is fabless, meaning it designs chips and hires others to make them. TSMC makes all of its processor and GPU wafers at 7 nanometers or smaller and the wafers for its FPGAs and adaptive chips; GLOBALFOUNDRIES makes most of those on larger processes, under a wafer supply agreement that sets a minimum annual capacity allocation and pricing through 2026; UMC and Samsung also make programmable logic chips. Packaging and testing happen at partners in Asia: two joint ventures with Tongfu Microelectronics, Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) and King Yuan Electronics (KYEC), and nearly all final assembly and testing is done in China, Malaysia and Taiwan. At year end it had unconditional commitments of about $12.2 billion, $8.5 billion of them due in 2026, mainly for wafers, substrates and multi-year cloud services. 424344454647

The specifics

AMD was incorporated in Delaware on May 1, 1969 as a Silicon Valley start-up and became a public company in 1972. It acquired Xilinx under a merger agreement dated October 26, 2020, and today sells FPGAs and adaptive chips under the Virtex, Kintex, Artix, Spartan, Zynq and Versal names. In March 2025 it bought ZT Systems for $3.2 billion in cash and 8.3 million shares, kept its design team and intellectual property to build complete AI systems for the cloud, and in October 2025 sold ZT's manufacturing business to Sanmina for $2.4 billion in cash plus 1.2 million Sanmina shares, naming Sanmina its preferred manufacturing partner for complex AI systems. 48495051525354

It protects its designs with about 7,200 US patents and about 2,200 pending US applications, some 18,900 patent matters worldwide, and with the cross-licensing agreements common in the industry. By its own account it was the first company to put a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU), a block of circuitry for AI, on the same chip as an x86 processor for PCs. It is moving from chips to whole systems: its Helios rack-scale platform combines its CPUs, GPUs and networking, and its AI GPU roadmap promises a new Instinct generation every year, beginning with the MI350 series in 2025. 5556575859

It names its competitors. In data centers it competes mainly with Intel and Nvidia across processors, GPUs and networking, with Altera in FPGAs, and with some of its own customers designing their own data center chips. In PCs its main rival is Intel, with Arm-based chips a growing alternative; in graphics it faces Nvidia, which it calls the discrete GPU market share leader, and Intel. In embedded markets it names Altera, Lattice Semiconductor and Microsemi in FPGAs and Broadcom, Marvell, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, NXP, Qualcomm and NVIDIA among makers of application-specific chips. It says it leads in semi-custom game console chips. 60616263

Export rules weigh on its China business. Since October 2023, US rules have required a license to ship certain Instinct GPUs and Versal FPGAs to China and other listed countries. A new license requirement in April 2025 hit its MI308 GPUs, costing about $800 million in inventory and related charges in the second quarter; after it was granted licenses for some China-based customers, it began shipping in the fourth quarter and reversed about $360 million, leaving about $440 million of net charges for the year. US officials have said they expect the government to receive 15% of revenue from licensed MI308 sales to China, though no regulation requires it so far. 64656667

What drives growth, line by line

Data Center. The largest segment: $16,635 million in 2025, nearly half of revenue, up 32% from $12,579 million. The filing credits strong demand for EPYC server processors and Instinct GPU accelerators, above all the MI350X series deployed by large hyperscale customers, OEMs and ODMs. Operating income rose only to $3.6 billion from $3.5 billion, held back by higher costs and operating expenses and by about $440 million of net charges from the MI308 export restriction. 68697071

Client. PC processors brought in $10,640 million, up 51% from $7,054 million, on a 31% rise in processor units shipped and a 15% higher average selling price, reflecting strong demand for Ryzen desktop and mobile processors. 6872

Gaming. $3,910 million, up 51% from $2,595 million, on higher semi-custom revenue from game console chips and strong demand for Radeon gaming GPUs, among them the Radeon RX 9000 series released in 2025. Together, Client and Gaming earned operating income of $2.9 billion, against $1.2 billion in 2024. 68737475

Embedded. $3,454 million, down 3% from $3,557 million, as demand in certain end markets remained mixed; operating income fell to $1.2 billion from $1.4 billion. The company added three EPYC Embedded processor series in 2025. 68767778

Altogether revenue rose 34% to $34.6 billion from $25.8 billion. Gross margin, the share of revenue left after the cost of the chips, rose to 50% from 49% on product mix despite the export charges, and net income reached 4.3 billion dollars against 1.6 billion in 2024, helped by an $853 million tax benefit. Outside the segments sit $2.3 billion of amortization of past acquisitions and $1.6 billion of stock-based pay. 7980818283

What comes next, in the company's own words: an annual cadence of new Instinct AI accelerators; the first gigawatt of the OpenAI deployment powered by the Instinct MI450 series; the Helios rack-scale platform built from its CPUs, GPUs and networking; and, for PCs, the Ryzen AI 400 series launched in January 2026. 59365884

The read's section on the people who run it is on the People tab.

What the desk infers Inferred

1. Inferred

   The Client and Gaming customer that took 18% of revenue in 2023 was most likely a game console maker buying semi-custom chips, and its drop below 10% reflects AMD outgrowing console chips rather than the loss of that customer.

   Because

   • One Client and Gaming customer took 18% of revenue in 2023, and no customer reached 10% in 2024 or 2025. 33
   • AMD's semi-custom chips power the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series S and X, and certain customers pay engineering fees for such custom designs as well as for the chips. 2985
   • Gaming revenue still rose 51% in 2025 on higher semi-custom revenue, so console chip sales did not collapse. 73
   • Total revenue grew from 22.7 billion dollars in 2023 to 34.6 billion in 2025, led by data center chips. 83
   Confidence 55 of 100Wrong if A filing naming the 2023 customer as a PC maker, a distributor or a data center buyer rather than a console maker.
2. Inferred

   In 2025 the AI accelerator push cost the Data Center segment its margin growth: revenue rose by about a third while operating income barely moved, pointing to Instinct GPUs carrying heavier costs than the server processors they joined.

   Because

   • Data Center revenue rose from $12,579 million to $16,635 million, while its operating income went from $3.5 billion to only $3.6 billion. 6871
   • About $440 million of net MI308 export charges landed in the segment's costs. 7167
   • Research and development rose 25%, mainly on more engineers for the AI strategy, and inventory rose $2.2 billion to support the ramp of Data Center products on advanced processes. 2486
   • Client and Gaming, with a smaller revenue gain, more than doubled its operating income. 6875
   Confidence 55 of 100Wrong if Segment disclosures showing Instinct GPU operating margins at or above those of EPYC server processors in 2025.
3. Inferred

   The products behind 2025's growth, EPYC, Instinct and Ryzen, most likely all come from one foundry, TSMC in Taiwan, which makes the company far more dependent on TSMC than its list of four foundries suggests.

   Because

   • TSMC makes all of AMD's processor and GPU wafers at 7 nanometers or smaller, while GLOBALFOUNDRIES's share of processor wafers is limited to the 12 nm and 14 nm nodes. 4243
   • Inventory rose $2.2 billion mainly to support the ramp of Data Center products on advanced process nodes. 86
   • The filing warns that changes between China and Taiwan could disrupt its Taiwan-based foundries and subcontractors. 87
   Confidence 75 of 100Wrong if A filing showing that EPYC, Instinct or Ryzen processors are made in volume at a foundry other than TSMC.