Published in PC Hardware

Asset light still unfolding

by on20 August 2008


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Very secretive


We found out that AMD is still pursuing its highly marketed asset light strategy and that this eventually means that AMD will do something about its Fabs.


There are a few scenarios. The most logical one is that AMD will sell pieces of Fab36 and Fab38 and keep up to 51 percent ,as this is what Intel wants from AMD. Remember, Intel gave the x86 license to AMD but under very strict rules. One of these rules is that AMD keeps control over at least 51 percent of the Fabs.

So whoever buys half of the Fab would have 49 percent at most. Factories cost money, and AMD has more than a thousand employees in this FAB.

The second option is that AMD will start manufacturing chips for third-party vendors and try to make some money out of it. This is what TSMC has been doing for years and AMD might jump to this kind of business model. If this doesn’t happen to AMD, it might happen to a new company that would own AMD Fabs.

This is the second scenario. The new company would be in charge of manufacturing chips for AMD and other companies and try to keep the fab busy. This would be the highest priority for the new company.

Last modified on 21 August 2008
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