AMD announced the completion of its agreement to divest the ZT Systems U.S.-headquartered data center infrastructure manufacturing business to Sanmina. As part of the transaction, AMD is retaining ZT Systems’ design and customer enablement teams, a move the company says will accelerate the quality and time-to-deployment of AMD Artificial Intelligence systems for cloud customers. Sanmina will become a preferred new product introduction manufacturing partner for AMD’s cloud rack and cluster-scale Artificial Intelligence solutions, a role aimed at strengthening AMD’s ecosystem of original design manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers.
Framing the deal as a shift toward rack-scale innovation, AMD executive vice president and general manager of the data center solutions business unit, Forrest Norrod, said this marks the next chapter in the company’s data center strategy. He highlighted that AMD intends to extend its leadership from silicon to software to full systems to give cloud and Artificial Intelligence customers an open, scalable path to deploy AMD performance more quickly. According to Norrod, pairing Sanmina’s U.S.-based manufacturing strength with AMD’s Artificial Intelligence systems design and enablement expertise is intended to deliver quality, speed, and flexibility at scale.
The arrangement separates manufacturing from design and customer enablement, positioning AMD to focus on system architecture and deployment support while leveraging Sanmina for new product introduction at rack and cluster scale. By aligning with a preferred manufacturing partner and keeping core design capabilities in-house, AMD seeks to streamline the rollout of cloud-focused Artificial Intelligence systems and reinforce collaboration across its partner network. The company frames this as a strategic step to accelerate deployment timelines and enhance product readiness for large-scale data center customers.
