AMD will become fabless
Today, AMD has agreed with the government of Abu Dhabi an investment plan of $ 8.4 billion (2.1 immediately, and then - as the factories are built) in a new joint company, which will go to all AMD production facilities (two factories built in Germany and planned in New York). The Arabs, apparently, realized that investments in American treasury tickets were not so reliable, and decided to buy something real, not pieces of paper :)) .
Thus, AMD, experiencing difficult times due to problems in the CPU market, will be divided into the factory part (56% will be owned by the Abu Dhabi government), and the company is only engaged in the development of integrated circuits.
The new factory, which will include 3,000 AMD employees, has ambitious plans - in addition to manufacturing processors developed on fabless (factoryless) AMD, third-party orders will be accepted, so it will compete with monsters like TSMC and UMC.
How this process will affect AMD’s R&D department is not yet clear, but perhaps they will have more resources to develop their ideas.
Update:
AMD has finally confirmed that the deal will take place early next year. Advanced Technology Investment Company, specially formed by the government of Abu Dhabi, is investing $ 2.1 billion in the new The Foundry Company (they didn’t think about the name for a long time). Then over the next years, another 3.6-6 billion dollars will be invested.
In addition, the Arabs will pay the debt to AMD (1.2 billion dollars).
New factories (the first will be built in New York) will be made in alliance with IBM and will focus on the production of microcircuits using both conventional and SOI technologies, up to 22 nm in size.
Thus, AMD, experiencing difficult times due to problems in the CPU market, will be divided into the factory part (56% will be owned by the Abu Dhabi government), and the company is only engaged in the development of integrated circuits.
The new factory, which will include 3,000 AMD employees, has ambitious plans - in addition to manufacturing processors developed on fabless (factoryless) AMD, third-party orders will be accepted, so it will compete with monsters like TSMC and UMC.
How this process will affect AMD’s R&D department is not yet clear, but perhaps they will have more resources to develop their ideas.
Update:
AMD has finally confirmed that the deal will take place early next year. Advanced Technology Investment Company, specially formed by the government of Abu Dhabi, is investing $ 2.1 billion in the new The Foundry Company (they didn’t think about the name for a long time). Then over the next years, another 3.6-6 billion dollars will be invested.
In addition, the Arabs will pay the debt to AMD (1.2 billion dollars).
New factories (the first will be built in New York) will be made in alliance with IBM and will focus on the production of microcircuits using both conventional and SOI technologies, up to 22 nm in size.