What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2021-01-29 compared with 2020-02-04 · 184 added, 150 removed, 251 unchanged (57% of the section changed)

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the growth, change and competitive landscape of the markets in which AMD participates;

the expected amounts to be received by AMD under the IP licensing agreement and AMD’s expected royalty payments from future product sales of China JVs’ products to be developed on the basis of such licensed IP;

sales patterns of AMD’s PC products and semi-custom System-on-Chip (SoC) products for game consoles;

the expected amounts to be received by AMD under the IP licensing agreement and AMD’s expected royalty payments from future product sales of the two joint ventures AMD holds equity in with Higon Information Technology Co., Ltd.

(THATIC JVs) products to be developed on the basis of such licensed IP;

sales patterns of AMD’s products;

international sales will continue to be a significant portion of total sales in the foreseeable future;

the balance of the uncertain tax benefits in the next 12 months;

that AMD’s cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities balances together with the availability under that certain revolving credit facility (Secured Revolving Facility) made available to AMD and certain of its subsidiaries under the Credit Agreement, will be sufficient to fund AMD’s operations including capital expenditures over the next 12 months;

that AMD’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investment balances together with the availability under that certain revolving credit facility (the Revolving Credit Facility) made available to AMD and certain of its subsidiaries under the Credit Agreement, will be sufficient to fund AMD’s operations including capital expenditures over the next 12 months;

AMD’s ability to obtain sufficient external financing on favorable terms, or at all;

AMD’s expectation that based on the information presently known to management, the potential liability related to AMD’s current litigation will not have a material adverse effect on its financial condition, cash flows or results of operations;

any amounts in addition to what has been already accrued by AMD for future remediation costs under clean-up orders will not be material;

any amounts in addition to what has been already accrued by AMD for future remediation costs under clean-up orders will not have a material effect on our financial condition, cash flows or results of operations;

we expect to file future patent applications in both the United States and abroad on significant inventions as we deem appropriate;

anticipated ongoing and increased in costs related to enhancing and implementing information security controls;

anticipated ongoing and increased costs related to enhancing and implementing information security controls;

revenue allocated to remaining performance obligations that are unsatisfied which will be recognized over the next 12 months;

all unbilled accounts receivables are expected to be billed and collected within 12 months;

and a small number of customers will continue to account for a substantial part of AMD’s revenue in the future.

a small number of customers will continue to account for a substantial part of AMD’s revenue in the future;

and the acquisition of Xilinx, Inc.

is currently expected to close by the end of calendar year 2021.

For a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements, see “Part I, Item 1A-Risk Factors” and the “Financial Condition” section set forth in “Part II, Item 7-Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” or MD&A, and such other risks and uncertainties as set forth below in this report or detailed in our other Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports and filings.

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• server and embedded processors, semi-custom System-on-Chip (SoC) products, development services and technology for game consoles.

We also license portions of our intellectual property (IP) portfolio.

From time to time, we may also sell or license portions of our intellectual property (IP) portfolio.

For financial information about geographic areas and for segment information with respect to revenues and operating results, refer to the information set forth in Note 14 of our consolidated financial statements.

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References in this report to 2020, 2019 and 2018 refer to the fiscal year unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Pending Acquisition

On October 26, 2020, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the Merger Agreement) with Thrones Merger Sub, Inc., our wholly owned subsidiary (Merger Sub), and Xilinx, Inc.

(Xilinx), whereby Merger Sub will merge with and into Xilinx (the Merger), with Xilinx surviving such Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of ours.

Under the Merger Agreement, at the effective time of the Merger (the Effective Time), each share of common stock of Xilinx (Xilinx Common Stock) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time (other than treasury shares and any shares of Xilinx Common Stock held directly by us or Merger Sub) will be converted into the right to receive 1.7234 fully paid and non-assessable shares of our common stock and, if applicable, cash in lieu of fractional shares, subject to any applicable withholding.

As of the signing of the Merger Agreement, the transaction was valued at $35 billion .

The actual valuation of the transaction could differ significantly from the estimated amount due to movements in the price of our Common Stock, the number of shares of Xilinx common stock outstanding on the closing date of the Merger and other factors .

The closing of the Merger is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approval and approval by our stockholders and Xilinx stockholders.

The transaction is currently expected to close by the end of calendar year 2021.

Additional Information

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Our mailing address and executive offices are located at 2485 Augustine Drive, Santa Clara, California 95054, and our telephone number is (408) 749-4000.

The SEC’s website, www.sec.gov, contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.

The SEC website, www.sec.gov, contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.

References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “AMD,” “we,” “us,” “management,” “our” or the “Company” mean Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

and our consolidated subsidiaries.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Athlon, EPYC, FirePro, FreeSync, Geode, Opteron, Radeon, Ryzen, Threadripper, Infinity Fabric, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Microsoft, Windows, DirectX, Xbox 360 and Xbox One are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Athlon, AMD CDNA, AMD Instinct, AMD RDNA, EPYC, FirePro, FreeSync, Geode, Opteron, Radeon, Radeon Instinct, RDNA, Ryzen, Threadripper, Infinity Fabric, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Microsoft, Windows, DirectX and Xbox One are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

PCIe is a registered trademark of PCI-SIG Corporation.

Chromebook and Stadia are trademarks of Google Inc.

Cray is a trademark of Cray Inc.

and is registered in the United States and other countries.

Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries.

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Computing and Graphics Markets

The Computing and Graphics market addresses the need for computational and visual data processing in computing devices that include personal computers, laptops / notebooks, and workstations.

We service this market with our CPU, GPU, APU, system-on-chip and chipset product offerings.

Central Processing Unit (CPU) .

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The principal elements used to measure CPU performance are work-per-cycle (or how many instructions are executed per cycle), clock speed (representing the rate at which a CPU’s internal logic operates, measured in units of gigahertz, or billions of cycles per second) and power consumption.

instructions simultaneously, the bit size of its instruction set, memory size and data access speed.

Other factors impacting microprocessor performance include the process technology used in its manufacture, the number and type of cores, the ability of the cores to process multi-thread or process multiple instructions simultaneously, the bit size of its instruction set, memory size and data access speed.

Developments in IC design and manufacturing process technologies have resulted in significant advances in microprocessor performance.

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GPUs perform parallel operations on data to render images for a video display and are essential to presenting computer generated images on that display, decoding and rendering animations and displaying video.

The more sophisticated the GPU, the higher the resolution and the faster and smoother moving objects can be displayed on video display or in a virtual environment (e.g.

The more sophisticated the GPU, the higher the resolution and the faster and smoother moving objects can be displayed on a video display or in a virtual environment (e.g.

virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)).

In addition to graphics processing, GPUs are used to perform parallel operations on multiple sets of data and are increasingly used to perform vector processing for non-graphics applications that require repetitive computations such as supercomputing, deep learning, artificial and machine intelligence, blockchain and various other applications (e.g., cryptocurrency mining and autonomous driving).

In addition to graphics processing, GPUs are used to perform parallel operations on multiple sets of data and are increasingly used to perform vector processing for non-graphics applications that require repetitive computations such as high-performance computing (HPC), deep learning, artificial and machine intelligence, blockchain and various other applications (e.g., cryptocurrency mining and autonomous driving).

Accelerated Processing Unit (APU).

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An APU is a processing unit that integrates a CPU and a GPU onto one chip (or one piece of silicon), along with, in some cases, other special-purpose components.

This integration enhances system performance by “offloading” selected tasks to the best-suited component (i.e., the CPU or the GPU) to optimize component use, increasing the speed of data flow between the CPU and GPU through shared memory and allowing the GPU to function as both a graphics engine and an application accelerator.

This integration enhances system performance by “offloading” selected tasks to the best-suited component (i.e.

the CPU or the GPU) to optimize component use, increasing the

speed of data flow between the CPU and GPU through shared memory and allowing the GPU to function as both a graphics engine and an application accelerator.

Having the CPU and GPU on the same chip also typically improves energy efficiency by, for example, eliminating connections between discrete chips.

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An SoC is a type of IC with a CPU, GPU and other components, such as a memory controller and peripheral management, comprising a complete computing system on a single chip.

By combining all of these elements as an SoC, system performance and energy efficiency is improved, similar to an APU.

By combining all of these elements as an SoC, system performance and energy efficiency are improved, similar to an APU.

A chipset is a generic term referring to a device or a collection of devices that allow the microprocessor to connect to a wider range of peripheral devices in the system (such as storage, optical drives, and Universal Serial Bus (USB) peripherals).

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Chipsets are most often found in larger form factor systems, typically desktop systems or larger notebook platforms, which require the expanded peripheral selection that is enabled by the chipset.

Typical notebook platforms and small form factor desktop platforms typically do not utilize a chipset and instead rely on the capabilities of the APU to connect to all the required devices on the platform.

Typical notebook platforms and small form factor desktop platforms usually do not utilize a chipset and instead rely on the capabilities of the APU to connect to all the required devices on the platform.

Our Computing and Graphics Products

Our microprocessors are incorporated into computing platforms, which are a collection of technologies that are designed to work together to provide a more complete computing solution and to enable and advance the computing components.

Our microprocessors are incorporated into computing platforms, which are a collection of technologies that are designed to work together to provide a more complete computing solution.

We believe that integrated, balanced computing platforms consisting of microprocessors, chipsets (either as discrete devices or integrated into an SoC) and GPUs (either as discrete GPUs or integrated into an APU or SoC) that work together at the system level bring end users improved system stability, increased performance and enhanced power efficiency.

key platform components and enable them to bring the platforms to market quickly in a variety of PC and server system form factors.

In addition, we believe our customers also benefit from an all-AMD platform (consisting of an APU or CPU, a discrete GPU, and a chipset when needed), as we are able to optimize interoperability, provide our customers a single point of contact for the key platform components and enable them to bring the platforms to market quickly in a variety of PC and server system form factors.

We currently base our microprocessors and chipsets on the x86 instruction set architecture and the AMD Infinity Fabric™, which connects an on-chip memory controller and input/output (I/O) channels directly to one or more microprocessor cores.

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The use of intelligent, dynamic power management is designed to create lower energy use by allowing compute applications to be completed quickly and efficiently, enabling a return to the ultra-low power idle state.

In May 2019, we introduced the 3 rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ desktop processor family based on the new “Zen 2” core architecture with AMD chiplet design approach.

Following that introduction, we announced in November 2019 the global availability of the flagship product in our AM4 mainstream platform infrastructure, the AMD Ryzen™ 9 3950X.

This product enables a high core count with 16 cores and 32 threads designed for PC buyers.

At the value end of the mainstream AM4 platform portfolio, we also announced the new AMD Athlon™ 3000G processor offering better performance and value for end users building budget oriented desktop platforms.

In addition to the mainstream product family, we introduced the next generation of the Ryzen™ Threadripper™ product line built on the new TRX40 platform to serve the needs of the high-end desktop segment for creators and enthusiasts.

Our November 2019 introduction included the 24-core AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ 3960X and the 32-core AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ 3970X processors.

In January 2020, we announced a processor for creative professionals, the 64-core, 128-thread AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ 3990X built to enable extreme performance for 3D, visual effects, and video professionals.

Our microprocessors for desktop platforms currently include the AMD Ryzen™ series processors and AMD Athlon™ processors.

In April 2020, we expanded our 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processor family by adding AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and AMD Ryzen 3 3300X processors with “Zen 2” core architecture to business users, gamers and creators.

In June 2020, we announced further additions to the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processor family, by introducing the AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT and AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT desktop processors designed for the enthusiast market.

In July 2020, we introduced for the consumer market, the AMD Ryzen 4000 series desktop processors and the AMD Athlon 3000 series desktop processors with built-in Radeon™ graphics.

The AMD Ryzen 4000 G-Series desktop processors offer power efficiency for consumers, gamers, streamers and creators and include multi-layered security features.

The AMD Athlon 3000 G-Series desktop processors provide responsive performance and features for entry-level PCs using “Zen” core architecture.

In October 2020, we introduced the AMD Ryzen 5000 Series desktop processor family powered by “Zen 3” core architecture.

The AMD Ryzen 5000 Series processors have up to 16 cores and deliver across the board leadership performance for gamers and content creators.

Notebooks and 2-in-1s.

We continue to invest in designing and developing high performing and low power APUs for notebook PC platforms for the consumer and commercial markets.

In January 2019, we announced our mobility line-up encompassing all notebook segments:

second generation AMD Ryzen™ 3000 Series Mobile Processors, powering ultrathin, commercial and gaming notebooks;

AMD Athlon™ 300 Series Mobile Processors, powering mainstream notebooks with the “Zen” core;

and optimized seventh generation A-Series processors, elevating performance for mainstream Chromebooks™ notebook computers.

In January 2020, we announced our x86 8-core ultrathin laptop processors, the AMD Ryzen™ 4000 U-Series, as part of the AMD Ryzen™ 4000 Series Mobile Processor family, built on “Zen 2” core architecture with 7nm process technology and high performance Radeon™ graphics in an SOC design.

In addition, as part of the AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Mobile Processor family, we announced the Ryzen™ 4000 H-Series Mobile Processors for gaming and content creation.

These processors support AMD SmartShift technology, which allows for automatic power shifting with AMD Radeon discrete mobile GPUs to enable new levels of performance in thin notebooks.

We also announced the AMD Athlon™ 3000 Series Mobile Processor family powered by “Zen” architecture for mainstream notebook users.

We offer enterprise-class desktop and notebook PC solutions sold as AMD PRO Mobile and AMD PRO desktop processors with Radeon™ Vega Graphics for the commercial client market.

These solutions are designed to provide enterprise customers with the performance, security and business features such as commercial-grade quality, platform longevity and extended image stability they require.

In April 2019, we announced the 2 nd Gen AMD Ryzen™ PRO mobile processors with Radeon Vega Graphics and the AMD Athlon™ PRO mobile processors with Radeon Vega Graphics.

These processors provide power-efficient performance, security features and commercial-grade reliability and manageability.

In September 2019, we expanded our commercial desktop lineup with the global availability of our new AMD Ryzen™ PRO 3000 Series desktop processors:

AMD Ryzen™ 9 PRO 3900, AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 3700, and AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 3600.

The processors offer up to 12 cores and 24 threads and bring the computing performance of “Zen 2” and high core count to the commercial segment.

We offer a full suite of chipset products, including the new X570 chipset introduced in July 2019 which supports PCIe® 4.0 (fourth generation Peripheral Component Interconnect Express motherboard interface) designed for enthusiast desktop platforms.

In addition, we also offer the B450 and the A320 chipset that are combined with AMD Ryzen processors for the AM4 desktop platform for the performance and affordable mainstream platforms segments.

We also have the A300 chipsets designed for small form factors.

In the High-End Desktop (HEDT) segment, we introduced the new TRX40 chipset to support the 3rd generation Ryzen Threadripper platform which offers high speed I/O and platform bandwidth.

For the 1st and 2nd generation Threadripper families, we continue to offer the X399 chipset.

We also continue to offer AMD 9-Series chipsets for the Socket AM3/3+ platforms serving desktop PCs, and AMD A-Series Controller Hubs

for the Socket FM2/2+ platforms.

We also offer AMD 785E, 780E, 780M, 690E, SR5690, SP5100, SB600, SB710, SB850 and M690E chipsets and AMD A-Series Controller Hubs for our embedded products.

We continue to invest in designing and developing high performing and low power APUs for notebook PC platforms and we offer AMD Ryzen and AMD Athlon mobile processors for the consumer and commercial markets.

In January 2020, we introduced the AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Mobile Processors for ultrathin and gaming laptops designed to deliver performance and power efficiency.

In September 2020, we introduced the

first mobile AMD Ryzen and AMD Athlon processors for Chromebooks.

The AMD Ryzen and Athlon 3000 C-Series mobile processors are designed to enable thinner and lighter Chromebook designs with long battery life and enhanced connectivity.

We offer enterprise-class desktop and notebook PC solutions sold as AMD PRO Mobile and AMD PRO desktop processors with Radeon graphics for the commercial market.

These solutions are designed to provide enterprise customers with the performance, security capabilities and business features such as enhanced security and manageability, platform longevity and extended image stability.

In May 2020, we announced the global availability of the AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 series mobile family for commercial notebooks built with enterprise-grade AMD PRO technologies, which deliver a set of security and manageability features for Enterprise IT deployments.

In July 2020, we introduced the AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 series and AMD Athlon PRO 3000 series desktop processors with built-in Radeon graphics for the commercial market.

Also in July, we announced the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper™ PRO Processor family with up to 64 cores and built with enterprise grade AMD PRO technologies.

Designed for professional workstations from OEMs and system integrators, AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO processors offer full spectrum compute capabilities for multi-threaded workloads and high frequency single core performance for lightly threaded workloads.

We offer a full suite of chipset products, including the X570 chipset which supports PCIe® 4.0 (fourth generation Peripheral Component Interconnect Express motherboard interface) designed for enthusiast desktop platforms.

We also introduced the B550 chipset in April 2020 and the A520 chipset in July 2020 for socket AM4 for 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processors and 5000 processors.

In addition, we continue to offer the B450 and A320 chipsets that are combined with AMD Ryzen processors for the AM4 desktop platform for the performance and affordable mainstream platforms segments.

In the High-End Desktop (HEDT) and Workstation segments, we offer the TRX40 and the WRX80 chipsets, respectively, to support the 3rd generation Ryzen Threadripper and Threadripper Pro platforms offering high speed I/O and platform bandwidth.

Graphics Market

The semiconductor graphics market addresses the need for improved visual and data processing in various computing devices.

Many consumers value a rich visual experience to enable a more compelling and immersive experience, and, for these consumers, the PC has evolved from a traditional data processing and communications device to an entertainment platform.

Many consumers use PCs as entertainment platforms, in addition to traditional productivity and communications uses, and therefore value a richer, more visually compelling and immersive experience.

As a result, visual realism and graphical display capabilities are key product differentiation elements among computing devices.

This has led to increasing creation and use of processing-intensive multimedia content for computing devices, including playing games, capturing media content, viewing online videos, editing photos and managing digital content.

This has led to the increased creation and use of processing-intensive multimedia content for playing games, capturing media, viewing online videos, editing photos and managing digital content on computing devices.

In turn, these trends have contributed to higher consumer demand for performance graphics solutions and to manufacturers designing computing devices with these capabilities.

Industries that utilize computer assisted design (CAD), that develop content for media and entertainment markets and that generate professional visualizations and renderings can benefit greatly from graphics solutions optimized for the professional graphics market.

In addition to traditional graphics markets, there is a large and growing market for accelerated computing, powered by graphics processors, which is primarily made up of high-performance computing and machine learning/deep learning.

Traditional high performance computing focuses on scientific research, model simulation, and exploration which is mainly driven by a need for computing throughput in universities and government research centers.

The second market is the rapidly growing area of machine learning and deep learning workloads.

Graphics processors are used both in the training of machine learning models as well as the application of models via inference.

In addition to traditional graphics markets, there is a large and growing demand for accelerated computing, powered by graphics processors in markets such as high performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence, and Cloud Visualization (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure & Cloud Gaming).

Traditional HPC focused on scientific research, model simulation, and exploration is driving an increased need for computing throughput at universities and government research centers.

Artificial intelligence is a rapidly growing area of machine learning and deep learning workloads.

Graphics processors are used primarily in the training of machine learning models.

The cloud visualization market is fueled by the trend to in work from home and thus the increased need for remote accessibility, and the shift from traditional desktop and notebook workloads to the cloud.

The expansion of compute workloads on graphics processors is driving market expansion for traditional graphics silicon.

Another area of the market for graphics compute is blockchain technology, which is a decentralized digital ledger used to securely store, transmit and process sensitive and valuable data.

Blockchain applications are typically performed using specifically designed application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or a general purpose CPU or GPU.

Blockchain applications are typically performed using specially designed application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or a general purpose CPU or GPU.

Our Graphics Products

Graphics processing is a fundamental component of almost everything we create and can be found in an APU, GPU, SoC or a combination of a discrete GPU with one of the other foregoing products working in tandem.

Our customers generally use our graphics solutions to enable or increase the speed of rendering images, to help improve image resolution and color definition, and increasingly to process massive data sets for cloud and data center applications.

center applications.

We develop our graphics products for use in various computing devices and entertainment platforms, including desktop PCs, notebook PCs, 2-in-1s, All-in-Ones (AIOs), professional workstations, and the data center.

With each of our graphics products, we have available drivers and supporting software packages that enable the effective use of these products under a variety of operating systems and applications.

We have developed RDNA™ 2, a high performing and power efficient graphics architecture, which is the foundation for next-generation PC gaming graphics, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X consoles.

Additionally, the RDNA 2 architecture supports advanced graphics features such as ray tracing, Infinity Cache and variable rate shading.

Our hardware and software components are used to implement ray tracing technology to simulate the paths of light rays moving through a movie or game scene, resulting in photorealistic 3D images.

Our APUs deliver visual processing functionality for value and mainstream PCs by integrating a CPU and a GPU on a single chip, while discrete GPUs (which are also known as dGPUs) offer high-performance graphics processing across all platforms.

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Discrete Desktop and Notebook Graphics .

Our discrete GPUs for desktop and notebook PCs support current generation application program interface (APIs) like DirectX® 12 and Vulkan®, support new displays using Radeon™ FreeSync™ and Radeon™ FreeSync 2 HDR™ technologies, and are designed to support VR in PC platforms.

In January 2019, we introduced the AMD Radeon™ VII, a premium graphics card for gamers, creators and enthusiasts built on 7nm process technology and with 16GB of HBM2 memory (High Bandwidth Memory) and 1 TB/s memory bandwidth.

In May 2019, we announced the RDNA gaming architecture which is designed to deliver better performance, power and memory efficiency.

In July 2019, we announced the availability of the 7nm AMD Radeon™ RX 5700-series gaming graphics card family (AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 XT and RX 5700) featuring AMD RDNA architecture, high-speed GDDR6 (Graphics Double Data Rate type 6) memory and support for the PCIe 4.0 interface.

In October 2019, we announced the AMD Radeon™ RX 5500 series that includes the Radeon RX 5500 graphics card that will be available in desktop PCs from manufacturers and graphics cards from board partners as well as the Radeon™ 5500M GPU for notebook PCs.

In December 2019, we announced AMD

Radeon™ RX 5500 XT graphics card that is optimized to deliver high performance.

In January 2020, we introduced AMD Radeon™ RX 5600 series graphics products, which includes the AMD Radeon™ RX 5600 XT graphics card and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 graphics card, with AMD RDNA architecture and software feature to provide high-performance and high-fidelity experiences for 1080p gamers.

Our discrete GPUs for desktop and notebook PCs support current generation application program interfaces (APIs) like DirectX® 12 Ultimate and Vulkan®, support new displays using AMD FreeSync™, AMD FreeSync Premium, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro technologies, and are designed to support VR in PC platforms.

In August 2020, we announced the availability of the new AMD Radeon Pro 5000 series GPUs for the updated 27-inch iMac bringing a wide variety of graphically intensive applications and workloads to consumer and professional users.

In October 2020, we unveiled the AMD Radeon RX™ 6000 series graphics cards for enthusiast-class PC gaming experiences.

The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series includes the AMD Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards as well as the Radeon RX 6900 XT built upon the AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture that spans from game consoles to PCs.

The AMD RDNA 2 GPUs feature enhancements in the compute unit, advancements in the visual pipeline, and the introduction of a new high-speed cache called AMD Infinity Cache.

These architecture enhancements enable ultra-high performance and ultra-high fidelity in the latest games.

Complimenting the introduction of the new AMD RX 6000 Series graphics cards, AMD introduced AMD Smart Access Memory, which when combined with an AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor, offers an incremental performance boost in many games.

Professional Graphics.

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Software drivers for AMD Radeon Pro cards are designed to deliver high stability and performance across a wide variety of software packages including those requiring professional software vendor certifications.

In June 2019, we announced the AMD Radeon™ Pro Vega II GPUs which utilizes 7nm AMD Radeon™ Vega family GPUs, HBM2 and AMD Infinity Fabric Link GPU interconnect technology designed to power demanding professional applications.

In November 2019, we announced the AMD Radeon™ Pro W5700, a 7nm professional PC workstation graphics card that enables 3D designers, architects and engineers to visualize, review and interact with their designs in real time to accelerate decision-making processes and product development cycles.

In February 2020, we announced the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 workstation graphics card for Design & Manufacturing and Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) professionals.

We also announced the AMD Radeon Pro W5500M GPU designed and optimized to power next-generation, high-performance professional mobile workstations.

In May 2020, we announced the AMD Radeon Pro VII workstation graphics card for broadcast and engineering professionals.

In June 2020, we announced the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M mobile GPU built with 7 nanometer (nm) process technology and advanced AMD RDNA architecture for pro applications, including video editing, color grading, application development, game creation and more.

Data Center Graphics .

Our AMD Radeon Instinct™ family of GPU products are specifically designed to address growing demand for data center applications, including deep learning training and traditional high performance computing (HPC) workloads such as simulation where the compute capabilities of GPUs provide exceptional flexibility and performance.

Combined with our open-source software, Radeon™ Open eCosystem (ROCm), our customers can deliver a differentiated acceleration platforms to address the next-generation of computing challenges while minimizing power and space needs in the data center.

In March 2019, Google announced its new Stadia™ cloud gaming service using high-performance, custom AMD Radeon data center GPUs.

In May 2019, the US Department of Energy announced the Frontier exascale A+A (AMD CPUs plus AMD GPUs) system with Oakridge National Labs (ORNL).

In August 2019, Microsoft announced its new NVv4-series cloud offering of Azure Virtual Machines based on Radeon Instinct™ MI25 GPUs.

And in November 2019, we released ROCm 3.0, marking a major milestone in the path to Exascale class systems and platforms.

We offer two families of products to accelerate workloads in the data center.

Our visual cloud data center GPUs include a range of solutions tailored towards workloads requiring remote visualization, such as Desktop-as-a-Service, Workstation-as-a-Service and Cloud Gaming.

These GPUs are designed to cover the full range of graphical application acceleration, from light desktop tasks, to workstation tasks, multi-GPU high end rendering, and cloud gaming activities.

Our software solutions carry certification for a number of professional software vendor applications as well as being optimized for modern gaming titles.

In December 2020 Amazon Web Services announced and made available their new “G4ad” instance, designed for graphics intensive applications such as virtual workstations, game streaming and graphics rendering.

G4ad utilizes both AMD EPYC processors and the AMD Radeon Pro V520 GPU.

The AMD Radeon Pro V520 is the first AMD RDNA based, 7 nm GPU

released for cloud environments.

Our AMD Radeon Instinct™ and AMD Instinct family of GPU products are specifically designed to address growing demand for compute-oriented data center applications, including deep learning training and traditional HPC workloads such as simulation where the compute capabilities of GPUs provide exceptional flexibility and performance.

Combined with our ROCm™ open software platform, our customers can deliver differentiated acceleration platforms to address the next-generation of computing challenges while minimizing power and space needs in the data center.

In November 2020, we announced the AMD Instinct MI100 accelerator built on the new AMD CDNA™ architecture.

The MI100 GPU is built to accelerate workloads in the scientific computing and AI markets.

Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom

The Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Markets

The Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Markets address the need for computational and visual data processing in the Server, Embedded computing device, and custom designed computing device markets.

We service these markets with our CPU, GPU, APU, and customized designed system-on-chips products.

A server is a computer system that performs services for connected customers as part of a client-server architecture.

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Servers must be efficient, scalable and adaptable to meet the compute characteristics of new and changing workloads.

Embedded products address computing needs in casino gaming machines as well as enterprise-class telecommunications, networking, security, storage systems and thin clients (which are computers that serve as an access device on a network), and in PC-adjacent markets, such as industrial control and automation, digital signage, point-of-sale/self-service kiosks, and medical imaging.

Embedded products address computing needs in enterprise-class telecommunications, networking, security, storage systems and thin clients (which are computers that serve as an access device on a network).

Typically, AMD embedded products are used in applications that require high to moderate levels of performance, where key features may include relatively low power, small form factor, and 24x7 operations.

High-performance graphics are increasingly important in many embedded systems.

High-performance graphics are important in some embedded systems.

Support for Linux ® , Windows ® and other operating systems as well as for increasingly sophisticated applications are also critical for some customers.

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Semi-Custom .

We have leveraged our core IP, including our graphics and processing technologies developed for the gaming, VR, AR and machine intelligence markets, to develop semi-custom solutions for customers who want differentiation in their products.

We leverage our core IP, including our graphics and processing technologies to develop semi-custom solutions for the PC and gaming markets.

In this market, semiconductor suppliers work alongside system designers and manufacturers to enhance the performance and overall user experience for semi-custom customers.

AMD has used this type of collaborative co-

development approach with many of today’s leading game console manufacturers and can also address customer needs in many other markets beyond game consoles.

AMD leverages our existing IP to create a variety of products tailored to a specific customer’s needs, ranging from complex fully-customized SoCs to more modest adaptations and integrations of existing CPU, APU or GPU products.

We have used this type of collaborative co-development approach with many of today’s leading game console manufacturers and can also address customer needs in many other markets beyond game consoles.

We leverage our existing IP to create a variety of products tailored to a specific customer’s needs, ranging from complex fully-customized SoCs to more modest adaptations and integrations of existing CPU, APU or GPU products.

Our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Products

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Our microprocessors for server platforms currently include the AMD EPYC™ Series processors and AMD Opteron™ X and A-Series processors.

The AMD EPYC™ 7001 Series of high performance processors have up to 32 “Zen” compute cores and are designed to support a full range of integer, floating point, memory bandwidth and I/O benchmarks and workloads.

The AMD Opteron™ X3000 Series APUs are a family of fully integrated CPU, GPU and I/O designed to provide processing and graphics performance for personal and small business needs.

In August 2019, we introduced the 2 nd Gen AMD EPYC family of processors that feature up to 64 “Zen 2” cores in 7nm process technology for performance and are designed to reduce total cost of ownership (TOC) by up to 50%.

In September 2019, we announced a new addition to the 2 nd Gen AMD EPYC family, the AMD EPYC™ 7H12 processor.

The 64 core, 2.6Ghz base frequency, 3.3Ghz max boost frequency, 280W TDP processor is built for HPC customers and workloads.

The AMD EPYC 7001 Series of high-performance processors have up to 32 “Zen” compute cores with 2nd Gen AMD EPYC 7002 Series containing up to 64 “Zen 2” compute cores.

Both are designed to support a full range of integer, floating point, memory bandwidth and I/O benchmarks and workloads.

In April 2020, we announced the extension of the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor family with three new processors:

AMD EPYC 7F32 (8 cores), AMD EPYC 7F52 (16 cores) and AMD EPYC 7F72 (24 cores).

These new processors leverage up to 500 MHz of additional base frequency and large amounts of cache.

AMD EPYC processors are powering cloud

instances from leading cloud providers.

Embedded Processors .

Our embedded processors are increasingly driving intelligence into new areas of our lives, like interactive digital signage, casino gaming, and medical imaging devices.

These products are designed to support greater connectivity and productivity, and we believe they can be a strong driver for the “internet of things” and “immersive computing” areas in the computing industry.

Our products for embedded platforms include AMD Embedded V-Series APUs, CPUs and SoCs, AMD Embedded R-Series APUs, CPUs and SoCs, AMD Embedded G-Series SoC platform and AMD Embedded Radeon GPUs.

In April 2019, we announced the AMD Ryzen™ Embedded R1000 Series of processors and the AMD EPYC™ Embedded 3000 Series of processors.

The AMD Ryzen™ Embedded R1000 Series provides customers with dual core, quad-threaded performance as well as the ability to run fanless, low power solutions for 4K displays for applications in digital displays, high-performance edge computing, networking, thin clients and more.

The AMD EPYC Embedded 3000 Series of processors addresses new markets including, networking, storage and edge computing devices.

Our embedded processors are designed to support greater connectivity and security, and we believe they can be a strong driver for the high-performance bandwidth and storage requirements of enterprise and cloud infrastructure and “immersive computing” areas in the computing industry.

Our products for embedded platforms include AMD Embedded EPYC CPUs, AMD Embedded V-Series APUs, CPUs and SoCs, AMD Embedded R-Series APUs, CPUs and SoCs, AMD Embedded G-Series SoC platform and AMD Embedded Radeon GPUs.

In February 2020, we announced the expansion of the embedded family with two new AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 low-power processors that provide customers with a thermal design power (TDP) range of 6 up to 10 watts.

The AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 family now includes the Ryzen Embedded R1102G and R1305G processors, designed for efficient power envelopes and giving customers the ability to create fanless systems.

In November 2020, we launched the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 Series processor built with 7 nm process technology, up to eight “Zen 2” cores and seven AMD Radeon graphics CPU compute units, providing power efficiency and enterprise-class security features for embedded customers.

Semi-Custom .

Our semi-custom products are tailored, co-developed, high-performance, customer-specific solutions based on AMD CPU, GPU and multi-media technologies.

We work closely together with our customers to define solutions to precisely match the requirements of the device or application.

Historically we have leveraged our core graphics processing technology into the game console market by licensing our graphic technology in game consoles.

We developed the semi-custom SoC products that power the current generation Sony PlayStation® 4 and PlayStation ® 4 Pro and Microsoft ® Xbox One™ and Xbox One S™ and Xbox One X™ game consoles.

In April 2019, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Inc.

released details about its next-generation game console, which will be powered by a custom AMD chip based on the “Zen 2” CPU and next generation GPU architectures.

Microsoft announced in June 2019, that AMD will power its next generation game console, codenamed Project Scarlett, with a custom, high performance SoC combining the AMD Ryzen “Zen 2” CPU core 4 and a next generation GPU based on the Radeon RDNA gaming architecture.

Marketing and Sales

We work closely with our customers to define solutions to precisely match the requirements of the device or application.

We developed the semi-custom SoC products that power both the Sony PlayStation® 4 and Sony PlayStation ® 5 as well as the Microsoft ® Xbox One X, Microsoft ® Xbox One S, Microsoft ® Xbox Series X™ and Xbox Series S™ game consoles.

Microsoft and Sony launched their new consoles in November 2020.

Sales and Marketing

We sell our products through our direct sales force and through independent distributors and sales representatives in both domestic and international markets.

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We market and sell our latest products under the AMD trademark.

Our desktop PC product brands for microprocessors are AMD Ryzen™, AMD Ryzen™ PRO, Ryzen™ Threadripper™, AMD A-Series, AMD FX™, AMD Athlon™, AMD Athlon™ PRO, and AMD Pro A-Series processors.

Our desktop PC microprocessor product brands are AMD Ryzen™, AMD Ryzen™ PRO, Ryzen™ Threadripper™, AMD A-Series, AMD FX™, AMD Athlon™, AMD Athlon™ PRO, and AMD Pro A-Series.

Our notebook and 2-in-1s for microprocessors are AMD Ryzen™ processors with Radeon™ Vega Graphics, AMD A-Series, AMD Athlon, AMD Ryzen PRO with Radeon Vega Graphics, AMD Athlon™ PRO with Radeon Vega Graphics and AMD Pro A-Series processors.

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We also sell low-power versions of our AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon, as well as AMD Geode™, AMD Ryzen, AMD EPYC, AMD R-Series and G-Series processors as embedded processor solutions.

Our product brand for the consumer graphics market is AMD Radeon graphics, and AMD Embedded Radeon

graphics is our product brand for the embedded graphics market.

Our product brand for professional graphics products are AMD Radeon Pro AMD FirePro™ graphics;

our product brand for data center graphics is Radeon Instinct™ accelerators for servers.

Our product brand for the consumer graphics market is AMD Radeon graphics, and AMD Embedded Radeon graphics is our product brand for the embedded graphics market.

Our product brand for professional graphics products are AMD Radeon Pro and AMD FirePro™ graphics.

Our product brand for data center graphics is Radeon Instinct™ and AMD Instinct accelerators for servers.

We also market and sell our chipsets under AMD trademarks.

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Under our co-marketing development programs, eligible customers can use market development funds as reimbursement for advertisements and marketing programs related to our products and third-party systems integrating our products, subject to meeting defined criteria.

Our microprocessor customers consist primarily of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), large direct data centers, original design manufacturers (ODMs), system integrators and independent distributors in both domestic and international markets.

Our microprocessor customers consist primarily of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), large public cloud service providers, original design manufacturers (ODMs), system integrators and independent distributors in both

domestic and international markets.

ODMs provide design and/or manufacturing services to branded and unbranded private label resellers, OEMs and system builders.

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Our graphics product customers include the foregoing as well as add-in-board manufacturers (AIBs).

Large direct data centers consist of cloud service providers.

Customers of our chipset products consist primarily of PC OEMs, often through ODMs or other contract manufacturers, who build the OEM motherboards, as well as desktop and server motherboard manufacturers who incorporate chipsets into their channel motherboards.

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Certain customers pay us non-recurring engineering fees for design and development services and a purchase price for the resulting products.

Our major customer, Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC, accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated net revenue for the year ended December 28, 2019 .

Sales to Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC consisted of products from our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment.

A loss of this customer would have a material adverse effect on our business.

No single customer accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated net revenue for the year ended December 26, 2020.

Original Equipment Manufacturers

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multi-nationals, selected regional accounts and some local system integrators, who target commercial and consumer end customers of all sizes.

Large multi-nationals and regional accounts are the core of our OEM partners.

Large multi-nationals and regional accounts are the core of our OEM partners’ business;

however, a growing focus for us is the Value Added Reseller (VAR) channel which resells OEM systems to the mid-market and the small and medium business (SMB) segments.

Our OEM customers include numerous foreign and domestic manufacturers of servers and workstations, desktops, notebooks, PC motherboards and game consoles.

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Distributors typically maintain an inventory of our products.

In most instances, our agreements with distributors protect their inventory of our products against price reductions and provide return rights with respect to any product that we have removed from our price book that is not more than 12 months older than the manufacturing code date.

In most instances, our agreements with distributors protect their inventory of our products against price reductions and provide return rights with respect to any product that we have removed from our price book that is less than 12 months older than the manufacturing code date.

In addition, some agreements with our distributors may contain standard stock rotation provisions permitting limited levels of product returns.

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Intel’s market share, margins and significant financial resources enable it to market its products aggressively, to target our customers and our channel partners with special incentives and to influence customers who do business with us.

These aggressive activities have in the past resulted in lower unit sales and a lower average selling price for many of our products and adversely affected our margins and profitability.

Intel exerts substantial influence over computer manufacturers and their channels of distribution through various brand and other marketing programs.

As a result of Intel’s position in the microprocessor market, Intel has been able to control x86 microprocessor and computer system standards and benchmarks and to dictate the type of products the microprocessor market requires of us.

Intel also dominates the computer system platform, which includes core logic chipsets, graphics chips, networking devices (wired and wireless), non-volatile storage and other components necessary to assemble a computer system.

OEMs that purchase microprocessors for computer systems are highly dependent on Intel, which can make them less innovative on their own and, to a large extent, can become distributors of Intel technology.

Additionally, Intel is able to drive de facto standards and specifications for x86 microprocessors that could cause us and other companies to have delayed access to such standards.

As long as Intel remains in this dominant position, we may be materially adversely affected by Intel’s:

business practices, including rebating and allocation strategies and pricing actions which may limit our market share and margins;

product mix and introduction schedules;

product bundling, marketing and merchandising strategies;

exclusivity payments to its current and potential customers, retailers and channel partners that require or result in exclusive product arrangements;

de facto control over industry standards, and heavy influence on PC manufacturers and other PC industry participants, including motherboard, memory, chipset and basic input/output system (BIOS) suppliers and software companies as well as the graphics interface for Intel platforms;

and marketing and advertising expenditures in support of positioning the Intel brand over the brand of its OEM customers and retailers.

Intel has substantially greater financial resources than we do and accordingly spends substantially greater amounts on marketing and research and development than we do.

We expect Intel to continue to invest heavily in marketing, research and development, new manufacturing facilities and other technology companies.

Intel could take actions that place our discrete GPUs at a competitive disadvantage, including giving one or more of our competitors in the graphics market, such as Nvidia Corporation, preferential access to its proprietary graphics interface or other useful information.

Also, Intel has announced that it is developing their own high-end discrete GPUs.

Intel’s position in the microprocessor market and integrated graphics chipset market, its introduction of competitive new products, its existing relationships with top-tier OEMs and its aggressive marketing and pricing strategies could result in lower unit sales and lower average selling prices for our products, which could have a material adverse effect on us.

Other competitors include a variety of companies providing or developing ARM-based designs at relatively low cost and low power processors for the computing market including tablets and thin-client form factors, as well as dense servers, set-top boxes and gaming consoles.

ARM Holdings designs and licenses its ARM cores and architecture to third parties, including us, and offers supporting software and services.

A variety of companies provide or have developed ARM-based microprocessors and platforms.

ARM-based designs

are being used in the PC and server markets, which could lead to further growth and development of the ARM ecosystem.

In 2020, Nvidia announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire ARM Holdings.

Nvidia is our principal competitor in the discrete graphics market.

Our ability to compete with companies who use ARM-based solutions depends on our ability to timely design and bring to market energy-efficient, high-performing products at an attractive price point.

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Higher unit shipments of our APUs and Intel’s integrated graphics may drive computer manufacturers to reduce the number of systems they build paired with discrete graphics components, particularly for notebooks, because they may offer satisfactory graphics performance for most mainstream PC users at a lower cost.

Intel could take actions that place our discrete GPUs and IGP chipsets at a competitive disadvantage such as giving one or more of our competitors in the graphics market, such as Nvidia Corporation, preferential access to its proprietary graphics interface or other useful information.

Also, Intel is developing its own high-end discrete GPUs for both consumer and commercial applications.

Intel could take actions that place our discrete GPUs and IGP chipsets at a competitive disadvantage such as providing preferential access to its proprietary graphics interface or other useful information to our competitors in the graphics market or restricting access to external companies, while developing its own high-end discrete GPUs for both consumer and commercial applications.

Our principal competitor in the discrete graphics market is Nvidia and they are considered the market share leader.

Other competitors include a number of smaller companies, which may have greater flexibility to address specific market needs, but less financial resources to do so, especially as we believe that the growing complexity of graphics processors and the associated research and development costs represent an increasingly higher barrier to entry in this market.

In the data center, our principal competitor is Nvidia as the adoption of their proprietary CUDA software platform established their market share in high performance computing and machine learning.

We believe that the growing complexity of graphics processors and the associated research and development costs represent a high and growing barrier to entry in this market.

Also, Intel has announced that it is developing their own high-end discrete GPUs.

Competition in the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Markets

In the server market, we compete against Intel with our CPU server products and Nvidia with our GPU server products.

In the data center, our principal competitor is Nvidia as the adoption of its proprietary CUDA software platform established its market share in HPC and machine learning.

Another competitor is Intel as it builds products for acceleration in the data center, such as Intel Xe or Habana AI processors.

Other competitors include numerous deep learning accelerator companies, consisting mostly of early to late stage start-ups.

Large cloud service providers have also shown interest in building their own products to accelerate AI.

We are the market share leader in semi-custom game console products, where graphics performance is critical, and where we compete primarily against Nvidia.

Competition in the Server Markets

In the server market, we compete against Intel with our CPU server products and Nvidia with our GPU server products.

Research and Development

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For example, we are focusing on improving the battery life of our APU products for notebooks and the performance and power efficiency of our discrete GPUs and our microprocessors for servers.

Another important area of focus is on HPC.

HPC has traditionally been synonymous with scientific computing and supercomputers, but we are seeing a blurring of boundaries between HPC and machine learning along with high-performance CPU and GPU deployments going into workstations and cloud computing data centers as well as supercomputers.

We are also focusing on delivering a range of low-power integrated platforms to serve key markets, including commercial clients, mobile computing and gaming.

We believe that these platforms will bring customers increased performance and energy efficiency.

We believe these platforms will bring customers increased performance and energy efficiency.

We also work on advanced memory technologies.

As SoC technology advances, the memory can sometimes limit CPU performance and we work on improving memory technology to improve performance.

Another area of focus is machine intelligence which is the platform for the growing field of machine learning.

Our CPUs, GPUs, accelerators, and APUs offer the computation capability and the flexibility required for various deployments of machine learning .

We also work with industry leaders on process technology, software and other functional intellectual property and with others in the industry and industry consortia to conduct early stage research and development.

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Third-Party Wafer Foundry Facilities

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc .

We are a party to a Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) with GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc.

(GF), which governs the terms by which we purchase products manufactured by GF.

Pursuant to the WSA, we are required to purchase all of our microprocessor and APU product requirements, and a certain portion of our GPU products, from GF manufactured at process nodes larger than 7 nm, with limited exceptions.

GF was a related party to us until May 15, 2019.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company .

We also have foundry arrangements with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for the production of wafers for certain products.

We have foundry arrangements with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) for the production of wafers for certain products, including the production of all our 7 nm products.

We are also a party to a Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) with GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc.

(GF), pursuant to which we are required to purchase all of our microprocessor and APU product requirements, and a certain portion of our GPU products, from GF manufactured at process nodes larger than 7 nm, with limited exceptions.

Other Third-Party Manufacturers

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One such agreement is the cross-license agreement that we entered into with Intel on November 11, 2009.

Under the cross-license

agreement, we granted to Intel and Intel granted to us, non-exclusive, royalty-free licenses to all of each other’s patents that were first filed no later than November 11, 2014 and each party can exploit these patents anywhere in the world for making and selling certain semiconductor- and electronic-related products.

Under the cross-license agreement, we granted to Intel and Intel granted to us, non-exclusive, royalty-free licenses to all of each other’s patents that were first filed no later than November 11, 2014 and each party can exploit these patents anywhere in the world for making and selling certain semiconductor- and electronic-related products.

Under the cross-license agreement, Intel has rights to make semiconductor products for third parties, but the third-party product designs are not licensed as a result of such manufacture.

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Sales are made primarily pursuant to purchase orders for current delivery or agreements covering purchases over a period of time.

Some of these orders or agreements may be revised or canceled without penalty.

Generally, in light of current industry practice, we do not believe that such orders or agreements provide meaningful backlog figures or are necessarily indicative of actual sales for any succeeding period.

Although such orders or agreements may provide visibility into future quarters, they may not necessarily be indicative of actual sales for any succeeding period as some of these orders or agreements may be revised or canceled without penalty.

With respect to our semi-custom SoC products, our orders and agreements are more stringent resulting in meaningful backlog for the coming quarter.

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Historically, our net revenue has been generally higher in the second half of the year than in the first half of the year, although market conditions and product transitions could impact these trends.

As of December 28, 2019 , we had approximately 11,400 employees.

Human Capital

As of December 26, 2020, we had approximately 12,600 employees in our global workforce.

We believe we are at our best when our culture of innovation, creative minds and people from all kinds of backgrounds work together in an engaging and open environment.

Areas of focus for us include the following:

Mission, Culture, and Engagement

Our History - Founded in 1969 as a Silicon Valley start-up, the AMD journey began with dozens of employees focused on leading-edge semiconductor products.

From those modest beginnings, we have grown into a global company achieving many important industry firsts along the way.

Today, we develop high-performance computing and visualization products to solve some of the world’s toughest and most interesting challenges.

Our Vision - High performance computing is transforming our lives.

Our Mission - Build great products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences.

Our employees are driven by this vision and mission.

Innovation occurs when creative minds and diverse perspectives from all over the world work together.

This is the foundation of our unique culture and the reason why AMD employees are among the most engaged in our industry.

We conduct a confidential annual survey of our global workforce to measure our culture, engagement, and manager quality.

The results are reviewed by the AMD Board of Directors and acted upon by our senior leadership team and individual managers at every level.

Results from our 2020 survey reported continued improvement across all categories, and scores were among the very best for global companies in the technology industry.

Our employees described our culture as innovative, open, and respectful, and rated the quality of our managers among the top 10% of our technology industry peers.

Belonging and Inclusion

Our diverse and inclusive workforce encourages employees to share their opinions and different perspectives.

We believe that building a diverse talent pipeline, encouraging a culture of respect and belonging, and increasing inclusion of unique and underrepresented voices makes AMD stronger.

AMD’s Employee Resource Groups encourage employee engagement and play an important role in our culture.

We are focused on hiring and developing under-represented minorities and women leaders.

We are proud to be led by a highly regarded CEO who has won many esteemed awards for her business and technical prowess.

In 2020, Lisa Su received the chip industry’s highest honor as the 2020 recipient of the Robert N.

Su also ranked #2 on Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year list for her strategic vision and successful company turn around.

Total Rewards

We invest in our workforce by offering competitive salaries, incentives, and benefits that are determined based on employee’s preferences.

Our incentives are meritocracy-based and we have a strong pay for performance culture that we believe drives superior results.

We benchmark our total rewards annually to ensure our compensation and benefit programs remain competitive with our peers.

We offer our employees opportunities to advance their careers at AMD.

We are focused on leadership progression and encourage our employees take advantage of new opportunities.

Our manager and leadership development programs are highly rated and we provide specialized development programs for our employees.

Environmental Regulations

Our operations and properties have in the past been and continue to be subject to various United States and foreign laws and regulations, including those relating to materials used in our products and manufacturing processes, discharge of pollutants into the environment, the treatment, transport, storage and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes and remediation of contamination.

discharge of pollutants into the environment, the treatment, transport, storage and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes and remediation of contamination.

These laws and regulations require our suppliers to obtain permits for operations making our products, including the discharge of air pollutants and wastewater.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business