Agencies
The chipmaker AMD announced on Monday plans to acquire server maker ZT Systems in a cash-and-stock deal worth $4.9 billion as the company strengthens its artificial intelligence capacity in its efforts to compete with Nvidia.
AMD plans to pay for 75% of the ZT Systems acquisition with cash and the remainder in stock. The company had $5.34 billion in cash and short-term investments as of the second quarter.
The computing requirements for AI have dictated that tech companies string together thousands of chips in clusters to achieve the necessary amount of data-crunching horsepower. Stringing together the vast numbers of chips has meant the makeup of whole server systems has become increasingly important, which is why AMD is acquiring ZT Systems.
“AI systems are our No. 1 strategic priority,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in an interview with Reuters.The addition of ZT Systems engineers will allow AMD to more quickly test and roll out its latest AI graphics processing units (GPUs) at the scale of cloud computing giants such as Microsoft require, Su said.
“The main way (ZT Systems) is additive to the company is we sell more GPUs,” Su said.
AMD plans to break off its server manufacturing business and sell it once the deal closes, as it has no plans to compete with companies such as Super Micro Computer, Su said.AMD has not yet held talks with potential buyers.ZT Systems Chief Executive Frank Zhang will join AMD and report to AMD’s data center chief, Forrest Norrod.
The closely held ZT Systems has roughly 2,500 employees of which AMD plans to retain about 1,000 engineers. Currently, ZT Systems generates annual revenue of roughly $10 billion, Su said.Executives expect the deal to close in the first half of 2025 and expect an additional 12 to 18 months to sell the manufacturing business.
