Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. + Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co., Ltd.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Santa Clara, California · 1 relationship
Historical relationship
Strategic Partnership · 2016–2019
Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co., Ltd.
Tianjin, Tianjin · 1 relationship
Analysis
AMD and Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment, later identified in filings as Higon, formed a two-entity joint-venture structure in February 2016. AMD held a majority interest in one entity and a minority interest in the other, contributed patents as its equity funding, and accounted for the investments under the equity method rather than consolidating them. [1]
The commercial core was an intellectual-property license worth $293 million in milestone-based fees, supplemented by royalties on products developed from the licensed technology. AMD also entered a development and IP agreement with the ventures in 2017; its SEC disclosures describe a bounded license and development relationship, not an unrestricted transfer of AMD's entire processor portfolio. [1] [2]
The structure enabled Chinese development and commercialization of x86-compatible server processors while allowing AMD to monetize established intellectual property in a market where direct x86 licensing is rare. AMD reported $60 million of licensing gain from the arrangement in the first half of 2019 and continued to disclose receivables and equity interests after product development had begun. [1] [3]
The active technology-transfer relationship was curtailed in June 2019 when the U.S. Commerce Department added Higon and the two Chengdu joint-venture entities to the Entity List. The federal notice said the entities posed a significant risk of activity contrary to U.S. national-security or foreign-policy interests, and AMD subsequently stated that it was complying with the designation. [3] [4]
Participants
Continue through either entity
Santa Clara, California · 1 record in this database
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. was founded in 1969 as a Silicon Valley start-up and has grown into a company focused on high-performance and adaptive computing. AMD says its technologies serve data-center, embedded, gaming and personal-computer markets, with a mission to build products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences. [1]
AMD's 2025 Form 10-K reports three operating segments: Data Center; Client and Gaming; and Embedded. The portfolio includes server and client CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, DPUs, AI networking products, FPGAs, adaptive system-on-chip products and semi-custom console chips. AMD's named product families include EPYC server processors, Instinct data-center accelerators, Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics. [2]
The Data Center segment addresses computing, visual-processing and AI workloads using combinations of CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, AI network interface cards, FPGAs and adaptive SoCs. AMD reported $16.6 billion in 2025 Data Center revenue, up 32% from 2024, driven primarily by demand for fifth-generation EPYC processors and Instinct MI350-series GPUs; it also expanded its AI portfolio with networking products and previewed the Helios rack-scale platform. [2]
AMD no longer depends on a fully integrated manufacturing model. A 2009 filing records the formation of GlobalFoundries with Advanced Technology Investment Company and the transfer of specified manufacturing assets and liabilities, while the 2025 filing says AMD uses TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC and Samsung for wafer production and Asia-Pacific partners for assembly, testing, marking and packaging. This design-and-foundry network is central to how AMD delivers products across several computing markets. [3] [2]
Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co., Ltd.
Tianjin, Tianjin · 1 record in this database
Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co., Ltd. (THATIC) was the Chinese partner in AMD's 2016 processor-technology licensing and joint-venture arrangement. [1] AMD said the arrangement created two separate legal entities to develop system-on-chip products tailored to the Chinese server market, with AMD holding a majority interest in one and a minority interest in the other. [1]
AMD's 2016 annual filing said the joint ventures were funded by AMD's contribution of patents while THATIC was responsible for initial and ongoing operating finance; AMD had no obligation to fund the ventures. [2] The filing described an approximately $293 million license-fee arrangement, milestone-based payments, expected royalties on products using the licensed intellectual property, and AMD engineering and technical support for product development. [2]
AMD did not treat the ventures as ordinary operating subsidiaries. [2] It concluded that the entities were variable-interest entities dependent on the partner's continuing financing, that AMD was not the primary beneficiary, and that the joint ventures therefore were not consolidated; AMD accounted for its interests under the equity method. [2] AMD also disclosed a 2017 development-and-intellectual-property agreement and related research-and-development services. [3]
AMD later identified the partner as Higon Information Technology Co., Ltd., formerly Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co., Ltd. [4] In June 2019, the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security added THATIC and the THATIC joint venture to the Entity List. [4] AMD's 2026 quarterly filing continues to disclose the Higon joint ventures and the Entity List implications. [5] BIS's current regulation lists Higon, THATIC and multiple Haiguang aliases at a Tianjin address and states that exports, reexports and transfers of items subject to the EAR require a license, with a presumption of denial. [6]