Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), global company that specializes in manufacturing semiconductor devices used in computer processing. The company also produces flash memories, graphics processors, motherboard chip sets, and a variety of components used in consumer electronics goods. The company is a major supplier of microprocessors (computer chips). AMD is based in Santa Clara, California.

AMD was founded in 1969 by Walter Jeremiah (“Jerry”) Sanders, a former executive at Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, and seven others. The company released its first product in 1970 and went public two years later. In the mid-1970s the company began producing computer chips. Starting out as a second-source manufacturer of computer chips, the company placed a great emphasis on quality and grew steadily. In 1982 the company began supplying second-source chips for Intel Corporation, which made the microprocessor used in IBM personal computers (PCs). The agreement with Intel ended in 1986. In 1991 AMD released the Am386 microprocessor family, a reverse-engineered chip that was compatible with Intel’s next-generation 32-bit 386 microprocessor. There ensued a long legal battle that was finally decided in a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in AMD’s favour. That same year, Compaq Computer Corporation contracted with AMD to produce Intel-compatible chips for their computers.

In 1996 AMD acquired a microprocessor company known as NexGen and began branching out from the Intel-compatible chip market. In 2000 AMD introduced the Athlon processor, which was designed to run the Microsoft Corporation’s Windows operating system. With the release of the Athlon processor, AMD became the first company to produce a 1-GHz (gigahertz) microprocessor, which marked AMD as a serious competitor in the chip market. In 2003 the company released the Opteron chip, another product that showcased the company’s ability to produce high-end chips. In 2006 AMD absorbed ATI Technologies, a manufacturer of video graphics cards for use in PCs. In 2008 AMD announced plans to split the company in two—with one part designing microprocessors and the other manufacturing them. This announcement followed news that the Advanced Technology Investment Company and the Mubadala Development Company, both based in Abu Dhabi, would acquire a controlling interest in AMD, pending approval by shareholders and the U.S. and German governments.

In 2009, following a series of complaints lodged by AMD, the European Commission fined rival Intel a record €1.06 billion (£948 million; $1.45 billion) for engaging in anticompetitive practices that violated the European Union’s antitrust laws. These practices allegedly involved financially compensating and providing rebates to manufacturers and retailers who favoured its computer chips over those of AMD, as well as paying manufacturers to cancel or postpone the launching of products utilizing AMD’s chips.

In 2014 the company was restructured into two parts: computing and graphics, which made processors for personal computers, and enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom, which made more-specialized processors.