Chip giant also wields the layoff sword! AMD (AMD.US) to lay off 4% globally, affecting about 1,000 employees.

AMD, a veteran computer chip manufacturer, announced on Wednesday that it will be cutting 4% of its global workforce. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), AMD had 26,000 employees at the end of last year, and this round of cuts will affect around 1,000 employees. A representative from AMD stated in a release: "As part of aligning our resources with our biggest growth opportunities, we are taking some targeted actions that unfortunately are resulting in a global reduction of approximately 4% of our workforce. The company is committed to treating affected employees with respect and assisting them during this transition period." AMD is the second-largest graphics processor manufacturer after NVIDIA Corporation and has been seeking a stronger foothold in the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence chips dominated by NVIDIA Corporation. The company stated that artificial intelligence is one of its biggest growth opportunities. AMD's stock fell 5% in 2024, while NVIDIA Corporation's stock rose 200%, becoming the world's largest publicly traded company by market value. AMD produces powerful artificial intelligence accelerators for data centers, and companies like Meta and Microsoft Corporation have purchased the MI300X accelerator as an alternative to NVIDIA Corporation's systems. However, NVIDIA Corporation remains dominant in the competitive artificial intelligence chip market, with a market share of over 80%, partly due to developing core software for artificial intelligence engineers to develop programs like ChatGPT. In October, AMD stated that it expects artificial intelligence chip sales to reach $5 billion this year, about one-fifth of the total sales expected by FactSet for AMD in 2024, which is $25.7 billion. AMD believes that by 2028, the total market size for artificial intelligence chips will reach $500 billion, but currently its total sales lag behind NVIDIA Corporation. FactSet estimates that NVIDIA Corporation's revenue will reach $125.9 billion in 2024. GPU was initially developed for gaming, an area where AMD lags behind. FactSet's data shows that AMD's gaming business revenue is expected to decrease by 59% to $2.57 billion in 2024. AMD also produces processor chips for laptops, desktops, and servers, primarily competing with Intel Corporation. According to data from Mercury Research, in the third quarter, Intel Corporation's share of server CPU sales increased by almost 3% to 34% compared to the same period last year.