AMD's acquisition of ZT Systems boosts its data centre AI systems capabilities

AMD declared the signing of a final contract to buy ZT Systems, the provider of AI infrastructure to the biggest hyperscale computing firms globally.

ZT Systems’ extensive experience designing and optimizing cloud computing solutions will help cloud and enterprise customers significantly accelerate the deployment of AMD-powered AI infrastructure at scale.

AMD has agreed to acquire ZT Systems in a cash and stock transaction valued at $4.9 billion, inclusive of a contingent payment of up to $400 million based on certain post-closing milestones. AMD 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 center AI systems and customer enablement capabilities. This acquisition also builds on the investments we have made to accelerate our AI hardware and software roadmaps. 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.”

Headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, ZT Systems has more than 15 years of experience designing and deploying data center 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 transaction close, ZT Systems will join the AMD Data Center 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.