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Chip Things (Official Account: aichip001)
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Editor | Mo Ying

Chip East reported on August 19 that AMD announced today that it has signed a final agreement to$4.9 billionAcquired server maker ZT Systems. 75% of the purchase price was paid in cash and the remainder in stock. As of the second quarter, the chip giant had $5.34 billion in cash and short-term investments.

ZT Systems is a leading AI infrastructure provider to the world’s largest hyperscale computing companies, with extensive AI systems expertise that complements AMD silicon and software capabilities.

According to a report by DigiTimes, among the manufacturers of high-end AI server systems and chassis assembly (L10~L12) in 2023, ZT Systems, as Microsoft's first supplier, is the supplier with the largest shipments, accounting for 36.7% of shipments.

This acquisition marks an important step forward in AMD’s AI strategy.Providing leading AI training and inference solutions based on innovations across chips, software, and systems。

In a financial report conference call last month, AMD Chairman and CEO Lisa Su revealed that AMD has raised its AI chip revenue forecast for this year from $4 billion to $5 billion.$4.5 billion。

The acquisition of ZT Systems is the latest in a series of investments AMD has made to significantly enhance its AI capabilities. In addition to increasing organic R&D activities over the past 12 months, AMD has invested inOver $1 billionTo expand the AMD AI ecosystem and enhance its AI software capabilities.

"AI systems are our number one strategic priority," Su said in an interview with Reuters. "The main way (ZT Systems) complements the company is that we sell more GPUs."

According to him, ZT Systems’ annual revenue is currently about$10 billion。

Headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, ZT Systems has more than 15 years of experience as the world’s largestcloud computingThe company has experience designing and deploying data center AI computing and storage infrastructure.

The surging demand for AI computing has led to the trend of interconnecting thousands of chips, making the composition of the entire server system increasingly important.

AMD is seeking to expand its AI chip and hardware portfolio and compete with Nvidia. The addition of ZT Systems engineers will enable AMD to test and launch its latest AI GPUs more quickly, significantly expanding the capabilities of data center AI systems.

AMD plans to retain some of the roughly 2,500 employees at closely held ZT Systems.About 1,000engineer.

After the transaction is completed, ZT Systems will join AMD's Data Center Solutions business unit. ZT CEO Frank Zhang will lead the manufacturing business, and ZT President Doug Huang will lead the design and customer support teams, both reporting to AMD Executive Vice President and General Manager Forrest Norrod.

At the same time, ZT Systems' extensive experience in designing and optimizing cloud computing solutions will also help cloud and enterprise customers significantly accelerate the large-scale deployment of AI infrastructure powered by AMD.

However, AMD does not intend to compete with server manufacturers and plans toSpin-off of ZT Systems' U.S. data center infrastructure manufacturing business and sale to strategic partnerAMD has not yet held talks with potential buyers.

AMD's board of directors has unanimously approved the acquisition of ZT Systems.First half of 2025completion, subject to certain regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

AMD expects to take another 12 to 18 months to sell the manufacturing business. By the end of 2025, ZT Systems will contribute to AMD's adjusted financial results.

source:AMD, Reuters