美国AMD半导体公司专门为计算机、通信和消费电子行业设计和制造各种创新的微处理器（CPU、GPU、APU、主板芯片组、电视卡芯片等)，以及提供闪存和低功率处理器解决方案，公司成立于1969年。AMD致力为技术用户——从企业、政府机构到个人消费者——提供基于标准的、以客户为中心的解决方案。

AMD提出3A平台的新标志，在笔记本领域有“AMD VISION”标志的就表示该电脑采用3A构建方案(CPU、GPU、主板芯片组均由AMD制造提供)。

AMD创办于1969年，当时公司的规模很小，甚至总部就设在一位创始人的家中。但是从1969年到2013年，AMD一直在不断地发展，2012年已经成为一家年收入高达24 亿美元的跨国公司。

公司刚成立时，所有员工只能在创始人之一的 JohnCarey 的起居室中办公，但不久他们便迁往美国加州圣克拉拉，租用一家地毯店铺后面的两个房间作为办公地点。到当年9 月份，AMD已经筹得所需的资金，可以开始生产，并迁往加州森尼韦尔的901 Thompson Place，这是AMD的第一个永久性办公地点。

在AMD创立五周年时，AMD已经拥有1,500名员工，生产200 多种不同的产品—— 其中很多都是AMD自行开发的，年销售额将近2650万美元。

在创办初期，AMD的主要业务是为Intel公司重新设计产品，提高它们的速度和效率，并以"第二供应商"的方式向市场提供这些产品。AMD当时的口号是"更卓越的参数表现"。为了加强产品的销售优势，该公司提供了业内前所未有的品质保证—— 所有产品均按照严格的MIL-STD-883 标准进行生产及测试，有关保证适用于所有客户，并且不会加收任何费用。

2006年以来，AMD中国业务取得了突飞猛进的发展，不仅把与戴尔、惠普、IBM、Sun、东芝、索尼等全球领先计算机制造商的合作拓展到中国市场，更是陆续获得了联想、方正、同方、TCL、七喜、华硕、Acer、微星、BenQ、曙光等各大OEM厂商的欢迎。

截至2013年年底，在CPU 市场上的占有率仅次于Intel，但仍有不少差距，AMD的市场占有率勉强超过20%，而Intel拥有将近80%的市场占有率。

但是AMD于2011年1月推出Fusion加速处理器（APU）后，其在处理器市场的表现为AMD带来了新的发展机遇，仅2011年第一季度，APU的出货量达到300万颗，是2010年第四季度的3倍，AMD2011年第一季度的营收达到16.1亿美元。

此外AMD在GPU领域中则表现得非常优异，独立显示核心的性能已远远超过其竞争对手NVIDIA。2010年二季度GPU份额为：Intel54.3%，AMD24.5%、NVIDIA19.8%。这一排名体现了AMD/NVIDIA两家位置的转换。如果只算独立显卡份额的话，2010年二季度AMD在独立显卡市场的份额为51%，刚刚好超过NVIDIA的49%。仅仅是这2%的差距，却完成了市场占有率一二名的质变转换。如今在对手NVIDIA费米架构产品刚刚起步的时候，AMD又展开一场大规模的显卡降价活动，部分高端显卡甚至降幅达到了500元的幅度，紧随其后的还有快要发布的新一代显卡，这将又一次对NVIDIA造成不少的冲击。

截止2015年10月AMD在中国苏州、马来西亚槟城还建有大容量封装测试工厂，正式更换大股东。来自AMD官方的最新消息，公司已同南通富士通微电子股份有限公司（以下简称“通富微电”）签署一份最终协议，双方将就组装、测试、标记和打包（ATMP）等业务组建合资公司。据悉，此次易的总价为4.36亿美元，通富微电将拥有合资公司85%的股权，AMD将收到3.71亿美元现金。

新的合资公司共包含5个设施，总员工预计约为5800名。根据双方公开信息，该交易最早将于2016年上半年完成。 

AMD在全球各地设有业务机构，在美、德、日、中和南亚部分国家设有制造工厂，并在全球各大主要城市设有销售办事处， 拥有超过1万名员工。 2013年，AMD的营收为53亿美元,是一家真正意义上的跨国公司。

2004年9月，AMD公司大中华区正式成立，总部设在北京(中国总部位于北京中关村)，现由AMD全球高级副总裁邓元鋆先生担任AMD大中华区总裁，统辖AMD在中国大陆、香港和台湾地区的所有业务，进一步把握“中国机会”。

2005年，AMD CPU封装测试厂在苏州落成，2006年，AMD在美国本土以外最大的研发中心——上海研发中心正式运营，2008年3月AMD成都分公司成立，与AMD上海、深圳、香港、台湾等地分支机构共同勾画AMD的中国战略版图。2010年11月8日AMD 对位于苏州的封装测试场进行扩建，此次扩建将把AMD苏州工厂打造成集组装、测试、打标和封装职能于一身的综合工厂，使其同时具备对中央处理器（CPU）、图形处理器（GPU）以及加速处理器（APU）进行封装和测试的能力。

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While initially it manufactured its own processors, the company later outsourced its manufacturing, a practice known as fabless, after GlobalFoundries was spun off in 2009. AMD's main products include microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors and graphics processors for servers, workstations and personal computers, and embedded systems applications.

AMD is the second-largest supplier and only significant rival to Intel in the market for x86-based microprocessors. Since acquiring ATI in 2006, AMD and its competitor Nvidia have dominated the discrete Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) market.

Advanced Micro Devices was formally incorporated on May 1, 1969, by Jerry Sanders, along with seven of his colleagues from Fairchild Semiconductor. Sanders, an electrical engineer who was the director of marketing at Fairchild, had, like many Fairchild executives, grown frustrated with the increasing lack of support, opportunity, and flexibility within the company, and decided to leave to start his own semiconductor company. The previous year Robert Noyce, who had invented the first practical integrated circuit or the microchip in 1959 at Fairchild, had left Fairchild together with Gordon Moore and founded the semiconductor company Intel in July 1968.

In September 1969, AMD moved from its temporary location in Santa Clara to Sunnyvale, California. To immediately secure a customer base, AMD initially became a second source supplier of microchips designed by Fairchild and National Semiconductor. AMD first focused on producing logic chips. The company guaranteed quality control to United States Military Standard, an advantage in the early computer industry since unreliability in microchips was a distinct problem that customers – including computer manufacturers, the telecommunications industry, and instrument manufacturers – wanted to avoid.

In November 1969, the company manufactured its first product, the Am9300, a 4-bit MSI shift register, which began selling in 1970. Also in 1970, AMD produced its first proprietary product, the Am2501 logic counter, which was highly successful. Its best-selling product in 1971 was the Am2505, the fastest multiplier available.

In 1971, AMD entered the RAM chip market, beginning with the Am3101, a 64-bit bipolar RAM. That year AMD also greatly increased the sales volume of its linear integrated circuits, and by year end the company's total annual sales reached $4.6 million.

AMD went public in September 1972. The company was a second source for Intel MOS/LSI circuits by 1973, with products such as Am14/1506 and Am14/1507, dual 100-bit dynamic shift registers. By 1975, AMD was producing 212 products – of which 49 were proprietary, including the Am9102 (a static N-channel 1024-bit RAM) and three low-power Schottky MSI circuits: Am25LS07, Am25LS08, and Am25LS09.

Intel had created the first microprocessor, its 4-bit 4004, in 1971. By 1975, AMD entered the microprocessor market with the Am9080, a reverse-engineered clone of the Intel 8080, and the Am2900 bit-slice microprocessor family. When Intel began installing microcode in its microprocessors in 1976, it entered into a cross-licensing agreement with AMD, granting AMD a copyright license to the microcode in its microprocessors and peripherals, effective October 1976.

In 1977, AMD entered into a joint venture with Siemens, a German engineering conglomerate wishing to enhance its technology expertise and enter the U.S. market. Siemens purchased 20% of AMD's stock, giving AMD an infusion of cash to increase its product lines. That year the two companies also jointly established Advanced Micro Computers, located in Silicon Valley and in Germany, giving AMD an opportunity to enter the microcomputer development and manufacturing field, in particular based on AMD's second-source Zilog Z8000 microprocessors. When the two companies' vision for Advanced Micro Computers diverged, AMD bought out Siemens' stake in the U.S. division in 1979. AMD closed its Advanced Micro Computers subsidiary in late 1981, after switching focus to manufacturing second-source Intel x86 microprocessors.

Total sales in fiscal year 1978 topped $100 million, and in 1979, AMD debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1979, production also began in AMD's new semiconductor fab in Austin, Texas; the company already had overseas assembly facilities in Penang and Manila, and it began construction on a semiconductor fab in San Antonio in 1981. In 1980, AMD began supplying semiconductor products for telecommunications, an industry undergoing rapid expansion and innovation.

Technology exchange agreement with Intel

Intel had introduced the first x86 microprocessors in 1978. In 1981, IBM created its PC, and wanted Intel's x86 processors, but only under the condition that Intel also provide a second-source manufacturer for its patented x86 microprocessors. Intel and AMD entered into a 10-year technology exchange agreement, first signed in October 1981 and formally executed in February 1982. The terms of the agreement were that each company could acquire the right to become a second-source manufacturer of semiconductor products developed by the other; that is, each party could "earn" the right to manufacture and sell a product developed by the other, if agreed to, by exchanging the manufacturing rights to a product of equivalent technical complexity. The technical information and licenses needed to make and sell a part would be exchanged for a royalty to the developing company. The 1982 agreement also extended the 1976 AMD–Intel cross-licensing agreement through 1995. The agreement included the right to invoke arbitration of disagreements, and after five years the right of either party to end the agreement with one year's notice. The main result of the 1982 agreement was that AMD became a second-source manufacturer of Intel's x86 microprocessors and related chips, and Intel provided AMD with database tapes for its 8086, 80186, and 80286 chips.

Beginning in 1982, AMD began volume-producing second-source Intel-licensed 8086, 8088, 80186, and 80188 processors, and by 1984 its own Am286 clone of Intel's 80286 processor, for the rapidly growing market of IBM PCs and IBM clones. It also continued its successful concentration on proprietary bipolar chips. In 1983, it introduced INT.STD.1000, the highest manufacturing quality standard in the industry.

The company continued to spend greatly on research and development, and in addition to other breakthrough products, created the world's first 512K EPROM in 1984. That year AMD was listed in the book The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, and based on 1984 income it made the Fortune 500 list for the first time in 1985.

By mid-1985, however, the microchip market experienced a severe downturn, mainly due to long-term aggressive trade practices (dumping) from Japan, but also due to a crowded and non-innovative chip market in the U.S. AMD rode out the mid-1980s crisis by aggressively innovating and modernizing, devising the Liberty Chip program of designing and manufacturing one new chip or chip set per week for 52 weeks in fiscal year 1986, and by heavily lobbying the U.S. government until sanctions and restrictions were put in place to prevent predatory Japanese pricing. During this time period, AMD withdrew from the DRAM market, and at the same time made some headway into the CMOS market, which it had lagged in entering, having focused instead on bipolar chips.

AMD had some success in the mid-1980s with the AMD7910 and AMD7911 "World Chip" FSK modem, one of the first multi-standard devices that covered both Bell and CCITT tones at up to 1200 baud half duplex or 300/300 full duplex. Beginning in 1986, AMD embraced the perceived shift toward RISC with their own AMD Am29000 (29k) processor; the 29k survived as an embedded processor. The company also increased its EPROM memory market share in the late 1980s. Throughout the 1980s, AMD was a second-source supplier of Intel x86 processors. In 1991, it introduced its own 386-compatible Am386, an AMD-designed chip. Creating its own chips, AMD began to compete directly with Intel.

AMD had a large and successful flash memory business, even during the dotcom bust. In 2003, to divest some manufacturing and aid its overall cash flow, which was under duress from aggressive microprocessor competition from Intel, AMD spun off its flash memory business and manufacturing into Spansion, a joint venture with Fujitsu, which had been co-manufacturing flash memory with AMD since 1993. AMD divested itself of Spansion in December 2005, in order to focus on the microprocessor market, and Spansion went public in an IPO.