AMD has made a deal with Xilinx to acquire the company. AMD will pay Xilinx with 35 billion dollars (just under 30 billion euros) worth of stocks.
The acquisition is in advanced stage: both companies’ directors have unanimously given their blessings. Now, the companies are waiting for approval from shareholders and regulatory bodies. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
Wider offer from AMD
With the acquisition, AMD hopes to broaden its portfolio significantly. It gains Xilinx’ expertise in designing field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips. These chips can be customized by customers to be optimized for specific workloads.
For example, Xilinx’ chips are applied in machine learning. Microsoft uses them in its Azure servers, and Samsung is collaborating with Xilinx in the development of 5G networks.
Largest acquisition by AMD
AMD has specialised in the development of x86 processors for many years. In 2006 the company acquired ATI for 5,4 billion dollars (then 4,3 billion euros), which specialised in graphic processors. Since then, AMD has been developing graphical processors and chips that combine the two technologies.
The acquisition of Xilinx involves a much larger sum of money. Apart from broadening its product range, AMD hasn’t specified any plans to incorporate features from Xilinx products into AMD’s current offerings.
Lisa Su in control
AMD CEO Lisa Su will become CEO of the combined company. Xilinx’ current CEO, Victor Peng, will become president responsible for the Xilinx branch. At least two Xilinx directors will join the AMD Board of Directors.
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