AMD Acquires ZT Systems for $4.9 Billion

In order to strengthen its Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has acquired ZT Systems, a leading provider of AI infrastructure for the world’s largest hyper-scale computing companies, in a cash and stock transaction valued at $4.9 billion.

The strategic transaction marks the next major step in AMD’s AI strategy to deliver leadership AI training and inferencing solutions based on innovating across silicon, software and systems, AMD said.

ZT Systems’ extensive experience designing and optimizing cloud computing solutions will also help cloud and enterprise customers significantly accelerate the deployment of AMD-powered AI infrastructure at scale.

The transaction is inclusive of a contingent payment of up to $400 million based on certain post-closing milestones. AMD expects the transaction to be accretive on a non-GAAP basis by the end of 2025.

The acquisition of ZT Systems marks the latest in a series of investments by AMD. In the last 12 months, in addition to increasing organic R&D activities, AMD has invested more than $1 billion to expand the AMD AI ecosystem and strengthen the company’s AI software capabilities.

Major Step

AMD Chair and CEO Dr Lisa Su said that the acquisition of ZT Systems is the next major step in their long-term AI strategy to deliver leadership training and inferencing solutions that can be rapidly deployed at scale across cloud and enterprise customers.

Dr Su said that ZT adds world-class systems design and rack-scale solutions expertise that will significantly strengthen AMD’s data centre AI systems and customer enablement capabilities.

“This acquisition also builds on the investments we have made to accelerate our AI hardware and software roadmaps. Combining our high-performance Instinct AI accelerator, EPYC CPU, and networking product portfolios with ZT Systems’ industry-leading data centre systems expertise will enable AMD to deliver end-to-end data center AI infrastructure at scale with our ecosystem of OEM and ODM partners,” Dr Su added.

Headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, ZT Systems has more than 15 years of experience designing and deploying data centre AI compute and storage infrastructure at scale for the largest global cloud companies. ZT Systems’ design, integration, manufacturing and deployment capabilities have made them one of the leading providers of AI training and inference infrastructure.

ZT Systems CEO Frank Zhang said that his company along with AMD can play an even larger role designing the AI infrastructure that is defining the future of computing.

“For almost 30 years we have evolved our business to become a leading provider of critical computing and storage infrastructure for the world’s largest cloud companies. AMD shares our vision for the important role our technology and our people play designing and building the computing infrastructure powering the largest data centres in the world,” Zhang added.

Following transaction close, ZT Systems will join the AMD Data Centre Solutions Business Group and Frank Zhang will lead the manufacturing business while ZT Systems President Doug Huang will lead the design and customer enablement teams, both reporting to AMD Executive Vice President and General Manager Forrest Norrod.

AMD will seek a strategic partner to acquire ZT Systems’ industry-leading US-based data centre infrastructure manufacturing business.