AMD announced it is laying off 4% of its staff, or roughly 1,000 employees, as part of its growing focus on artificial intelligence.
AMD is currently firing on all cylinders, challenging Intel’s dominance in multiple markets. The company has increasingly been working to challenge Nvidia, specifically in the AI chips market. In an effort to streamline that focus even more, the company said it is engaging in targeted layoffs.
“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%,” read a statement from AMD, via Tom’s Hardware. “We are committed to treating impacted employees with respect and helping them through this transition.”
As the outlet points out, it is unknown at this point exactly which divisions are impacted by the layoffs. The company did say, however, that it is trying to ensure it has the necessary talent to support its fastest-growing segments, including AI processors and data centers. As a result, it’s unlikely that those two divisions will be impacted.
While layoffs are never a welcome event within a company, and 1,000 job cuts are a significant number, AMD’s layoffs are still a far cry from Intel’s recent layoff of 15,000 employees.
As the industry continues to focus on AI, other companies may well make similar cuts to better align with the industry’s overall direction.