AMD Acquires Hyperscale Solutions Provider ZT Systems in Bid to Expand Data Centre AI Systems Capabilities

AMD has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire ZT Systems, a leading provider of Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure for the world’s largest hyperscale computing companies.

The strategic transaction marks the next major step in the tech giant’s AI strategy to deliver leadership AI training and inferencing solutions based on innovating across silicon, software, and systems. ZT Systems’ extensive experience designing and optimising cloud computing solutions will also help cloud and enterprise customers significantly accelerate the deployment of AMD-powered AI infrastructure at scale.

The acquisition of ZT Systems will be a cash and stock transaction valued at USD $4.9 billion, inclusive of a contingent payment of up to USD $400 million based on certain post-closing milestones. The US-based semiconductor leader expects the transaction to be accretive on a non-GAAP basis by the end of 2025.

“Our acquisition of ZT Systems is the next major step in our long-term AI strategy to deliver leadership training and inferencing solutions that can be rapidly deployed at scale across cloud and enterprise customers,” said AMD Chair and CEO Dr Lisa Su. “ZT adds world-class systems design and rack-scale solutions expertise that will significantly strengthen our 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.”

She added: Combining our high-performance Instinct AI accelerator, EPYC CPU, and networking product portfolios with ZT Systems’ industry-leading data center systems expertise will enable AMD to deliver end-to-end data center AI infrastructure at scale with our ecosystem of OEM and ODM partners.”

AMD to Lean on ZT Systems’ Industry-Leading Expertise

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.

“We are excited to join AMD and together play an even larger role designing the AI infrastructure that is defining the future of computing,” said Frank Zhang, CEO of ZT Systems. “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 centers in the world.”

Following the transaction closing, ZT Systems will join the AMD Data Centre Solutions Business Group. ZT CEO Frank Zhang will lead the manufacturing business and ZT 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.

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

Additional Transaction Details 

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the AMD Board of Directors. The acquisition is currently expected to close in the first half of 2025, subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.