Do we like AMD?
Designs processors and AI chips (Ryzen, EPYC, Radeon, Instinct) for PCs, data centres and gaming. Based in Santa Clara, California.
Our score: 6 out of 10. A well-run chip maker with no major scandal in what we found. Its record on workers and the climate is decent, not standout. We'd back it, with some caution.
AMD is a Santa Clara chip designer, run by Lisa Su as chair and CEO. It's best known for Ryzen PC chips, EPYC server chips and Radeon graphics. These days the buzz is all about AI. It now competes head-on with Nvidia for AI accelerators.
Things are going very well. Yahoo Finance reports AMD has started shipping its Helios AI racks to customers including Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and Anthropic. TheStreet says the stock hit an all-time high in early October. Su says demand is outrunning supply.
The dramas are modest. In 2019 AMD settled a class action for $12.1m over calling its Bulldozer chips 8-core. In 2024 it confirmed a 4% layoff, roughly 1,000 jobs, to focus on AI. Its chips have also had security flaws, such as Spectre, which AMD patched.
The US government restricted AMD's MI308 AI chip exports to China in 2025. Sales later restarted under licences, and builtin.com reports a deal where AMD and Nvidia share 15% of their China sales revenue with the US Commerce Department.
On the climate, GreentechLead reports AMD aims to halve its operating emissions by 2030 from a 2020 baseline, and it has cut them so far. It doesn't seem to have a company-wide net-zero target. That gives us a solid but unspectacular 6.