Rumor: AMD to be split in two companies to contract chip manufacturing?

The word on the street is that AMD might be split into two companies : Asset Light and Asset Smart (what a branding faux-pas). One would develop chip designs while the other would take care of the manufacturing aspect. It is expected that AMD will announce something in the coming weeks, but we only know for sure that something will happen by the end of the year. In my view, such a move would mean that part of AMD will become a contract foundry for other semi-conductor companies, like TSMC or UMC – that’s a difficult business. That way, AMD can use its excess capacity, especially when it comes to older processes that are not used for today’s top of the line processors and GPUs. Splitting the company also means that the design side of AMD should not have access to the external intellectual property (chip designs) that the manufacturing side has to handle, which is critical for prospect clients of the manufacturing side.