By May 1969 he and seven others officially launched Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
The company released its first product in 1970 and went public two years later.
Also in 1970, AMD produced its first proprietary product, the Am2501 logic counter, which was highly successful.
Its best-selling product in 1971 was the Am2505, the fastest multiplier available.
In 1971, AMD entered the RAM chip market, beginning with the Am3101, a 64-bit bipolar RAM. That year AMD also greatly increased the sales volume of its linear integrated circuits, and by year-end the company's total annual sales reached US$4.6 million.
Intel had created the first microprocessor, its 4-bit 4004, in 1971.
In September 1972 the company went public, selling 525,000 shares at $15 a share, bringing in $7.87 million.
AMD went public in September 1972.
To commemorate its five-year anniversary in May 1974, AMD began what was to become a renowned tradition, holding a gala party, this one a street fair attended by employees and their families, in which televisions, ten-speed bicycles, and barbecue grills were given away.
Despite a dogged recession in 1974--75, when sales briefly slipped, the company grew during this period to $168 million, representing an average annual compound growth rate of over 60 percent.
The company began as a producer of logic chips, then entered the RAM chip business in 1975.
In 1975 the company received an infusion of cash ($30 million for 20 percent of its stock) from Siemens AG, a huge West German firm who wanted a foothold in the United States semiconductor market.
By 1975, AMD entered the microprocessor market with the Am9080, a reverse-engineered clone of the Intel 8080, and the Am2900 bit-slice microprocessor family.
In 1976 the company signed a cross-license agreement with Intel.
In 1977, AMD entered into a joint venture with Siemens, a German engineering conglomerate wishing to enhance its technology expertise and enter the American market.
Intel had introduced the first x86 microprocessors in 1978.
In 1979 the company's shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time under the ticker AMD; that same year, production began at AMD's newly constructed Austin, Texas facility.
When the two companies' vision for Advanced Micro Computers diverged, AMD bought out Siemens' stake in the American division in 1979.
In 1980, AMD began supplying semiconductor products for telecommunications, an industry undergoing rapid expansion and innovation.
AMD closed Advanced Micro Computers in late 1981 after switching focus to manufacturing second-source Intel x86 microprocessors.
The main result of the 1982 agreement was that AMD became a second-source manufacturer of Intel's x86 microprocessors and related chips, and Intel provided AMD with database tapes for its 8086, 80186, and 80286 chips.
In 1983, it introduced INT.STD.1000, the highest manufacturing quality standard in the industry.
The company continued to spend greatly on research and development, and in addition to other breakthrough products, created the world's first 512K EPROM in 1984.
That year, AMD was listed in the book The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, and later made the Fortune 500 list for the first time in 1985.
By mid-1985, the microchip market experienced a severe downturn, mainly due to long-term aggressive trade practices (dumping) from Japan, but also due to a crowded and non-innovative chip market in the United States.
Beginning in 1986, AMD embraced the perceived shift toward RISC with their own AMD Am29000 (29k) processor; the 29k survived as an embedded processor.
In April 1987, AMD initiated an arbitration action against Intel.
In May 1989, the company established the office of the chief executive, consisting of the top three company executives.
Making the Transformation: 1989--94
In 1991 AMD released the Am386 microprocessor family, a reverse-engineered chip that was compatible with Intel’s next-generation 32-bit 386 microprocessor.
In 1991, it introduced its own 386-compatible Am386, an AMD-designed chip.
Early in 1993, the first members of the Am486 microprocessor family were introduced, and AMD and Fujitsu established a joint venture to produce flash memories, a new technology in which memory chips retained information even after the power was turned off.
In March 1994, a federal court jury confirmed AMD's right to use Intel microcode in 287 math coprocessors, and the company celebrated its 25th anniversary with Rod Stewart in Sunnyvale and Bruce Hornsby in Austin.
In 1996 AMD acquired a microprocessor company known as NexGen and began branching out from the Intel-compatible chip market.
For fiscal 1998, the company posted net sales of $2.54 billion, a 7.9 percent increase, but also recorded a painful net loss on income of $104 million.
AMD was also the first processor to be brand to make a seventh generation processor for Microsoft windows computing in 1999 with the AMD Athlon MP processor.
In mid-1999, Hillsboro, Oregon-based Lattice Semiconductor Corp. purchased AMD's semiconductor manufacturing unit Vantis Corp. for $500 million in cash.
In 2000 AMD introduced the Athlon processor, which was designed to run the Microsoft Corporation’s Windows operating system.
In 2003 the company released the Opteron chip, another product that showcased the company’s ability to produce high-end chips.
In December 2005, AMD divested itself of Spansion in order to focus on the microprocessor market, and Spansion went public in an IPO.
In October 2008, AMD announced plans to spin off manufacturing operations in the form of a multibillion-dollar joint venture with Advanced Technology Investment Co., an investment company formed by the government of Abu Dhabi.
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.
President and COO Dirk Meyer became AMD's CEO. Recessionary losses necessitated AMD cutting 1,100 jobs in 2009.
Since 2010, all of the company’s graphics processing products have been marketed under the AMD brand name.
In October 2012, it announced plans to lay off an additional 15% of its workforce to reduce costs in the face of declining sales revenue.
AMD acquired the low-power server manufacturer SeaMicro in early 2012, with an eye to bringing out an ARM architecture server chip.
Since opening at the end of 2013, over 5,000 children have visited the Centre.
In April 2019, the Irvine Company secured approval from the Sunnyvale City Council of its plans to demolish 1 AMD Place and redevelop the entire 32-acre site into townhomes and apartments.
In October 2020, AMD announced that it was acquiring Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35 billion.
Company Name | Founded Date | Revenue | Employee Size | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
Intel | 1968 | $63.1B | 121,100 | 8,863 |
IBM | 1911 | $60.5B | 270,000 | 320 |
NVIDIA | 1993 | $27.0B | 18,100 | 466 |
Texas Instruments | 1930 | $20.0B | 29,888 | 177 |
HP | 1939 | $63.0B | 53,000 | 1,398 |
Xilinx | 1984 | $3.1B | 4,891 | - |
Librato, Inc. | - | $18.8B | 63,800 | - |
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company | 1987 | $1.6T | 75,000 | - |
Asus | 1989 | $14.1B | 14,700 | - |
Analog Devices | 1965 | $12.0B | 15,300 | 5 |
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Amd, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Amd. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Amd. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Amd. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Amd and its employees or that of Zippia.
Amd may also be known as or be related to AMD Ventures LLC, Advanced Micro Devices, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Amd.