AMD to Cut 4% of Workforce, About 1,000 Employees Laid Off to Focus on AI Chips

On the 13th (local time), AMD announced that it will reduce its workforce by about 4% worldwide to expand its presence in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market.

According to CNBC on the same day, AMD stated in a press release, "We are taking several measures to reduce approximately 4% of our global workforce to align our resources with the biggest growth opportunities."

Reuters Yonhap News

According to documents submitted by AMD to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, AMD had 26,000 employees as of the end of last year. This means about 1,000 employees will be laid off.

This reduction is interpreted as a move to focus on the AI chip market. Until now, AMD has concentrated on consumer PC processors competing with Intel. Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that the layoffs are focused on sales and marketing positions in areas such as consumer PCs and gaming PCs.

AMD is the second-largest graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer after Nvidia. However, while Nvidia's stock price, with an 80% share of the AI chip market, has risen 200% this year, AMD's stock price has fallen by 5%.

Last month, AMD announced that it expects AI chip sales to reach $5 billion this year. This accounts for about one-fifth of AMD's total revenue forecast of $25.7 billion for this year, according to FactSet. Although AMD anticipates the AI chip market to reach $500 billion by 2028, it is still behind Nvidia, whose total revenue is expected to be $125.9 billion this year.