Advanced Micro Devices Inc is shedding about a thousand jobs as part of an effort to refocus on newer markets like artificial intelligence chips.
“As a part of aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps that will unfortunately result in reducing our global workforce by approximately 4%,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.
AMD has been pouring resources into artificial intelligence processors — a market dominated by Nvidia Corp — and is pushing deeper in data centres and corporate personal computers. The company has traditionally focused more on processors for consumer PCs, where it competes with Intel Corp.
The job cuts are concentrated on sales and marketing positions for areas such as consumer PC and gaming PCs, according to a person familiar with the process who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The company, which has its main offices in Santa Clara, California, and Austin, is still hiring overall. The layoffs were reported earlier by CRN.
The move follows other cutbacks among longtime Silicon Valley companies. Cisco Systems Inc is eliminating more than 6,000 positions, and Intel is cutting about 15% of its workforce of more than 100,000.
