AMD confirms, then denies fab business spin-off

Rumors have been abound in recent months that AMD is planning to spin off its chip manufacturing business, after the company’s former CEO Hector Ruiz briefly mentioned AMD’s future “asset-smart” strategy earlier this year. It now seems that those rumors have been confirmed (sort of), with AMD’s newly-appointed CEO Dirk Mayer stating that the company is ready to sell off its manufacturing infrastructure as part of a cost-cutting drive.

He made the revelation in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman, though AMD was quick to deny such a move by saying Meyer was actually misquoted. Supposedly, his original quote mentioned radically transforming the way wafers are manufactured but nothing about spinning off fabs.

AMD already outsources much of its chip production through partnerships with IBM and TSMC, so the notion of a spin-off isn’t at all that far-fetched. Whether Meyer meant something else or not, we will hopefully find out soon enough when the company further details their “asset-smart” strategy.