Unbeknownst to many, AMD has been around for 55 years!
Founded on May 1, 1969, AMD came into existence just under a year after Intel, and the fierce competition between the two has spanned over half a century.
In February 1982, AMD signed a contract with Intel to become the second manufacturer and supplier of the 8086/8088 processors for the IBM PC, later extending to the 80286.
Subsequently, Intel refused to continue providing technical authorization, leading AMD to take them to court. In 1994, AMD emerged victorious, winning over $1 billion in compensation. Following this, AMD386 and AMD486 achieved great success with their high performance-to-price ratio. As Intel entered the Pentium era, the two companies went their separate ways.
The history of AMD processors can be roughly divided into eight stages: 80486-K6, K7, K8, K10, K10.5, 12h APU, 15h Bulldozer, and Zen Ryzen.
In July 2006, AMD made a pivotal move in its history by acquiring ATI for $5.4 billion. This move, although burdening the company with significant debt and leading to the divestment of fabs, also provided AMD with a strong portfolio of CPUs and GPUs, opening up new avenues for growth.
In October 2020, AMD seized a new opportunity by acquiring FPGA giant Xilinx for $35 billion in stock.
As of now, AMD boasts a market capitalization of around $233 billion, surpassing its rival Intel by as much as $100 billion.
