AMD

What AMD does

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) designs processors for data centers, personal computers, gaming and embedded devices. Its main product lines are EPYC server processors, Ryzen PC processors and Instinct graphics processing units (GPUs), the accelerator chips used to train and run AI models. AMD's annual report for 2025 lists three segments: Data Center, Client and Gaming, and Embedded. AMD outsources production. The filing names TSMC and GlobalFoundries as wafer suppliers, with UMC and Samsung also making some programmable logic chips. AMD had about 31,000 employees as of December 27, 2025.

Why it matters

AMD's annual report names Intel as its primary competitor in CPUs. Mercury Research figures reported by The Register gave AMD 34.5% of server processor shipments in the second quarter of 2026, up from 27.3% a year earlier. AMD also competes with Nvidia for data center GPU orders.

AMD has signed AI supply agreements sized by data center power:

• 6 gigawatts of GPUs for OpenAI in October 2025
• 6 gigawatts for Meta in February 2026
• up to 2 gigawatts for Anthropic in July 2026

The OpenAI and Meta deals each give the customer a warrant, a right to acquire stock. Each covers up to 160 million AMD shares and vests as purchases and share-price targets are met. TechCrunch, citing a UBS research note, described the OpenAI structure as AMD in effect financing its customer's purchases. TechCrunch said OpenAI could sell the shares to pay for chips. The analyst argued validation of AMD's GPUs made the deal worthwhile. AMD also committed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic.

Recent developments

AMD reported 2025 revenue of $34.6 billion, up 34%, including $16.6 billion from Data Center. US export controls on its Instinct MI308 chips for China produced about $440 million in net inventory and related charges for the year, the company said.

For the second quarter of 2026, reported on August 4, revenue rose 50% from a year earlier to $11.5 billion. Data Center revenue more than doubled to $6.7 billion. The shares fell as much as 10.5% afterward. The Register linked the drop to concern that AMD's AI growth depends on a handful of customers: OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta.

At its Advancing AI event on July 23, 2026, AMD said its Helios rack-scale system was in production. Helios combines 72 Instinct MI455X GPUs with 18 EPYC Venice processors. AMD claims Helios delivers up to 30% more tokens per dollar than a competing Nvidia rack. That rests on its own July 2026 lab estimates.

On August 6 AMD announced an agreement to acquire inference chip startup Taalas, without disclosing a price. AMD's market value briefly passed $1 trillion on September 21, 2026, per The Register. On September 28 it agreed to acquire World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at about $8.2 billion. The startup, co-founded by Fei-Fei Li, builds AI models of three-dimensional environments.

What to watch

AMD scheduled the first one-gigawatt deployments for OpenAI and Meta for the second half of 2026. It scheduled Anthropic's for the first half of 2027. Lisa Su told investors in August 2026 that AMD expects Data Center revenue to more than double in 2027, The Register reported. AMD expects the World Labs purchase to close by the end of 2026. Both acquisitions were announced subject to regulatory approval. AMD's roadmap lists Instinct MI500 GPUs for 2027 and MI600 for 2028. A January 2026 Commerce Department rule set conditions on sales of AMD's MI325X chips to China, including a cap at 50% of US shipment volume, per The Register.