SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) published its annual Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report, detailing progress toward its strategic Corporate Responsibility goals in 2023. AMD focuses its efforts on key issues that have the greatest impact on its business and society, determined through an ESG materiality assessment¹, including environmental sustainability; digital impact; diversity, belonging and inclusion; and supply chain responsibility.

“We are in the midst of a major inflection point in the computing industry, and it is more important than ever to put our values into action and align our efforts with some of the biggest challenges facing our world, including addressing climate change and energy demand, enabling advancements in science and medicine, and respecting human rights,” said Justin Murrill, director of Corporate Responsibility at AMD. “At AMD, we continue to deepen collaboration with partners and peers to address these important issues and responsibly drive our industry forward.”

Key highlights from 2023 include:
Advancing Environmental Sustainability

• Through a holistic approach to chip design centered on performance and energy efficiency, AMD delivers a broad range of compute engines for end-to-end AI infrastructure. Innovations like the chiplet architecture AMD pioneered can address sustainability challenges during product use as well as in the manufacturing process. For instance, producing 4th Gen AMD EPYC™ CPUs with up to 12 separate compute chiplets instead of one monolithic die saved ~132,000 metric tons of CO2e in 2023 through avoidance of wafers manufactured, 2.8x the annual operational CO2e footprint of AMD in 2023, and 4.9x the water use of AMD operations in 2023². AMD also continues to make progress on its goal to deliver 30x energy efficiency improvement for processors and accelerators powering servers for HPC and AI training from 2020 to 2025, and AMD solutions power more than half of the top 50 most energy efficient supercomputers on the latest Green500 list.
• AMD designs AI and high-performance computing to help customers and partners tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges while achieving their sustainability goals. As AI becomes the dominant workload, AMD solutions are helping data center operators modernize their infrastructure to address space and power challenges. For example, a single 4th Gen AMD EPYC™ server can replace five legacy servers, reducing rack space by 70% while consuming 65% less energy³.
• Across its operations, AMD has reduced carbon emissions 24.5% since 2020. In 2023, AMD sourced 40% of its energy used from renewable sources, up from 18% in 2020. In the supply chain, AMD foundry partners reduced total water withdrawals from wafer manufacturing by increasing recycled water use by 34% (2022-2023).
  

Accelerating Scientific Research and STEM Education

• Since 2020, more than 150 universities, research institutions and non-profit organizations have received donated AMD technology through the AMD AI and HPC Fund and STEM initiatives, benefiting approximately 61 million people through scientific research and education.⁴ As part of these efforts, in 2023, AMD made donations to institutions working in areas such as AI and Machine Learning systems and applications research, incorporating AI in scientific applications and various HPC and AI teaching and training initiatives.
• The company also continues to expand STEM education with the AMD Learning Labs program and established a new lab at Maynooth University in Dublin, Ireland. In addition to technology and funding, AMD employees around the world provide mentoring and hands-on learning with students through a variety of programs and events.

Empowering People and Communities

• AMD empowers employees to do their most impactful work, supported by opportunities for development, engagement and belonging. Driven by these efforts, in the 2023 AMDer Survey, 92% of employees said AMD creates an environment where people of diverse backgrounds can succeed.
• In 2023, AMD launched Advancing Women in Tech, a comprehensive learning experience designed to empower, retain and support AMD women in technical careers. The program was completed by over 230 women in its inaugural year and is expanding with additional cohorts in 2024. AMD also welcomed its first cohort of veterans through the Hiring our Heroes program in 2023.
• AMDers around the world logged over 25,000 hours of volunteer time through individual and team-based activities throughout 2023.
  

Collaborating Across the Value Chain

• AMD cultivates strong partnerships across its value chain and carefully selected manufacturing partners to advance human rights, environmental sustainability and supply chain resilience. In 2023, AMD expanded due diligence efforts to mitigate adverse impacts to human rights where possible, including additional responsible minerals due diligence. Aligned to the company’s goals, 84% of AMD Manufacturing Suppliers had Responsible Business Alliance audits between 2020-2023.⁵
• AMD continues to work closely with suppliers to expand education and resources on environmental and human rights issues. Over the last three years, 95% of AMD Manufacturing Suppliers across Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan that work with labor agents to recruit migrant workers have attended the RBA Forced Labor Prevention workshop.

To learn more about these and other Corporate Responsibility updates, explore the full 2023-24 CR Report here.

AMD prepared this year’s report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. In addition, the report includes climate-related disclosures included in the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) as well as relevant disclosures in applicable Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards. AMD also annually reports to CDP on climate change and water, as well as reporting on how AMD is making progress in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Supporting Resources

• Learn how AMD chiplet architecture innovations are advancing sustainability
• Explore research enabled by the AMD AI and HPC Fund
• Read more about data center modernization with AMD EPYC
  

About AMD
For more than 50 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. Billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research institutions around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees are focused on building leadership high-performance and adaptive products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website, blog, LinkedIn and X pages. 

¹ We include certain disclosures, reports, and information on various environmental, social, and corporate responsibility-related matters on our website (collectively, our “ESG Materials”). Our ESG Materials may contain information that is significant; however, any significance should not be read as necessarily rising to the level of the definition of materiality used for the purposes of our compliance with reporting requirements, including the U.S. federal securities laws, even where we use the word “material” or “materiality” in our ESG Materials (including where we use it in connection with our materiality assessment) or in other materials issued in connection with the matters discussed in our ESG Materials. We have used definitions of materiality in the course of creating our ESG Materials and the goals and metrics discussed therein that do not coincide with or rise to the level of the definition of materiality used for the purposes of our compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws. Moreover, given the uncertainties, estimates, and assumptions inherent in the matters discussed in our ESG Materials, and the timelines involved, materiality is inherently difficult to assess far in advance. In addition, given the inherent uncertainty of the estimates, assumptions and timelines associated with the matters discussed in our ESG Materials, we may not be able to anticipate in advance whether or the degree to which we will or will not be able to meet our plans, targets or goals.
² AMD estimation based on defect density (defects per unit area on the wafer), chip area and n-factor (manufacturing complexity factor) to estimate the number of wafers avoided in one year. Yield = (1 + A*D0)^(-n) where A is the chip area, D0 is the defect density and n is the complexity factor. The area is known from our design, D0 is known based our manufacturing yield data, and n is a number provided by a foundry partner for a given technology. The calculations are not meant to be precise, since chip design can have a large influence on yield, but it estimates the area impact on yield. The carbon emission estimates of 132,064 mtCO2e were calculated using the estimated number of 5 nm wafers saved in one year, based on the TechInsights’ Semiconductor Manufacturing Carbon Model. Comparison to AMD corporate footprint is based on AMD reported scope 1 and 2 market-based GHG emissions in 2023: 46,606 mtCO2e. Water savings estimates of 1,110 million liters were calculated using the estimated number of 5 nm wafers saved in one year times the amount of water use per 300mm wafer mask layer times the average number of mask layers. Comparison to AMD corporate water use is based on AMD 2023 reported value of 225 million liters.
³ SP5TCO-022B: As of 02/28/2023 based on AMD Internal analysis using the AMD EPYC™ Bare Metal Server & Greenhouse Gas Emission TCO Estimation Tool - version 8.22, estimating the cost and quantity of 2P AMD EPYC™ 9654 (96 core/CPU) powered server versus 2P Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8130 (28 core/CPU) based server solutions required to deliver 380 total virtual machines (VM), requiring 1 core and 8GB of memory per VM.
Environmental impact estimates made leveraging this data, using the Country / Region specific electricity factors from the '2020 Grid Electricity Emissions Factors v1.4 – September 2020', and the United States Environmental Protection Agency 'Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator'.
This scenario contains many assumptions and estimates and, while based on AMD internal research and best approximations, should be considered an example for information purposes only, and not used as a basis for decision making over actual testing.
For additional details, see https://www.amd.com/en/claims/epyc4#SP5TCO-022B.
⁴ The time period for the Digital Impact goal includes donations made after January 1, 2020 and initiated by December 31, 2025. “Initiated” is defined as AMD and the recipient organization reaching an agreement on an AMD donation, which must be delivered by July 30, 2026. Reported data includes: direct beneficiaries defined as students, faculty, or researchers with direct access to AMD-donated technology, funding, or volunteers; and indirect beneficiaries defined as individuals with a reasonable likelihood of receiving research data formulated through AMD-donated technology and potentially gaining useful insights or knowledge. AMD conducts annual surveys with recipient organizations to estimate direct beneficiaries, and in the case of the AI & HPC Fund, indirect beneficiaries as well. To address gaps and/or inconsistencies in survey responses, AMD uses an economic-based impact assumption to estimate the total number of indirect beneficiaries (not applied to direct beneficiaries) by dividing the total market-value of donations in a given years by the total reported indirect beneficiary values from recipients’ surveys for the same year. The data shows the ratio is 1.08 on average for the 3 years of data available (2021, 2022, 2023). Therefore, AMD assumes for every $1M USD of market-value donated, approximately 1.08 million people will indirectly benefit. AMD also assumes that the annual estimated indirect beneficiaries in year 1 continues to reach additional individuals in year 2 and year 3, but at a reduced rate. The impact depreciation rate assumes year 2 beneficiaries amount to 50% of year 1 estimates, and year 3 beneficiaries amount to 25% of year 1 estimates. AMD goal calculations are third-party verified (limited level assurance) based on data supplied by recipient organizations, which is not independently verified by AMD, and AMD economic-based impact models based on data supplied by recipient organizations.
⁵ AMD calculations are third-party verified (limited level assurance) based on data supplied by our Manufacturing Suppliers, which is not independently verified by AMD.

Contact:
Sarah Feller
AMD Communications
(512) 574-5583
sarah.feller@amd.com

Suresh Bhaskaran
AMD Investor Relations
408-749-2845
suresh.bhaskaran@amd.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c432ad8c-4581-49eb-9d9e-9cb11379971f