AMD vs Groq: Founders, CEOs and History
AMD was founded in 1969 by Jerry Sanders, Edwin Turney and is led by Lisa Su. Groq was founded in 2016 by Jonathan Ross, Douglas Wightman and is led by Doug Wightman.
Company facts
Founders
AMD
Jerry Sanders
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was founded in May 1969 by Jerry Sanders, a charismatic, flamboyant electrical engineer, along with seven of his colleagues from Fairchild Semiconductor (the well-known incubator of Silicon Valley that also birthed Intel).
Edwin Turney
Edwin Turney helped establish the operating foundation behind AMD's early logic-device business. While Sanders became the public face, Turney's contribution was making sure the company could earn trust through production reliability and execution.
Groq
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross co-founded Groq in 2016 and was its CEO until December 2025. At Google he helped start the TPU program, the custom AI accelerator Google uses across its services.
Douglas Wightman
Doug Wightman co-founded Groq with Jonathan Ross in 2016 after working as an engineer at Google.
CEOs and their tenures
AMD
- Jerry Sanders1969–2002
CEO
Sanders, born in Chicago in 1936, worked at Douglas Aircraft and Motorola before joining Fairchild Semiconductor in 1961, where he rose to head worldwide sales and marketing.
Source - Hector Ruiz2002–2008
CEO
Ruiz grew up in Piedras Negras, Mexico, and as a teenager crossed the US border daily to attend high school in Eagle Pass, Texas, graduating valedictorian only three years after learning English.
Source - Dirk Meyer2008–2011
CEO
Meyer, a University of Illinois computer-engineering graduate with an MBA from Boston University, co-architected the Alpha 21064 and 21264 microprocessors at Digital Equipment Corporation before joining AMD in 1996, where he personally led development of the o…
Source - Rory Read2011–2014
CEO
Read spent 23 years at IBM in global leadership roles before becoming president and COO of Lenovo, and holds an information-sciences degree from Hartwick College.
Source - Lisa Su2014–present
CEO
Born in Taiwan and raised in the United States, Su earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from MIT and worked at Texas Instruments, IBM and Freescale Semiconductor before joining AMD in 2012 as senior vice president of glob…
Source
Groq
- Jonathan Ross2016–2025
Founder & Chief Executive Officer (former)
As Founder and CEO, the former Google TPU architect aggressively positions Groq as the absolute fastest AI hardware on Earth, explicitly targeting the massive latency bottlenecks of generative AI.
Source - Alex Davis2021–present
Chairman
He aggressively targets massive enterprise AI deployments, proving that Groq's specialized chips are significantly cheaper to run at scale than Nvidia's highly expensive H100s.
Source - Simon Edwards2025–2026
Chief Executive Officer (former; previously CFO)
He aggressively markets Groq's staggering speed advantage, specifically targeting developers frustrated by the slow response times of ChatGPT and other cloud providers.
Source - Doug Wightman2026–present
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
He manages massive engineering efforts to ensure the LPU hardware scales efficiently across data centers without catastrophic network bottlenecks.
Source - Alan Rice2026–present
Chief Operating Officer
He manages the incredibly complex supply chain required to manufacture highly advanced semiconductors in a deeply constrained global market.
Source - Sinclair Schuller2026–present
Chief Technology Officer
He directs the massive software engineering effort required to ensure standard AI models (like Llama) can actually compile and run on Groq's highly unique, non-GPU architecture.
Source - Rakesh Malhotra2026–present
Chief Product Officer
He leads the physical silicon design, ensuring the LPU can actually be manufactured at scale by massive foundries like GlobalFoundries.
Source
Timeline: AMD and Groq side by side
1969AMD
Advanced Micro Devices Founded
Jerry Sanders and seven colleagues from Fairchild Semiconductor founded AMD on May 1, 1969, and broke ground that year on the 915 DeGuigne building in Sunnyvale, California, which remained the headquarters for more than 47 years.
1975AMD
Entry Into Microprocessors
AMD entered the microprocessor market in 1975, moving beyond the logic devices it started with. The decision put it into direct competition with Intel and made x86 compatibility the center of its business for the next four decades.
1999AMD
Athlon Breakthrough
Athlon launched in 1999 and matched or beat Intel on desktop performance. In March 2000 AMD announced the first 1 GHz x86 processor, days ahead of Intel, which changed how enthusiasts and PC makers judged the company.
2005AMD
Antitrust Lawsuit Against Intel
AMD sued Intel in 2005, alleging rebates and exclusionary practices that limited its access to PC makers.
2006AMD
ATI Technologies Acquired
AMD acquired ATI Technologies in 2006 for about $5.4B to add graphics and chipsets. The debt-funded deal strained the balance sheet just as Intel shipped Core 2, but ATI became the basis for Radeon graphics, console APUs, and later Instinct accelerators.
2009AMD
Fabless Pivot Through GlobalFoundries
AMD moved its manufacturing operations into GlobalFoundries in 2009 and stopped owning fabs. The change removed billions of annual capital spending and let AMD buy leading-edge capacity, but it also tied the product roadmap to outside foundries.
2011AMD
Bulldozer Architecture Failure
Bulldozer traded single-thread performance for core count at a time when most software depended on per-core speed. Reviews were poor, PC maker confidence fell, and server share collapsed, which is what forced the clean-sheet Zen project.
2014AMD
Lisa Su Becomes CEO
AMD's board appointed Lisa Su president and CEO on October 8, 2014, succeeding Rory Read. She narrowed the company around high-performance computing and put the engineering budget behind the Zen CPU core rather than spreading it across incremental projects.
2016Groq
Groq founded
Jonathan Ross and Douglas Wightman founded Groq in Mountain View to build a compiler-first AI inference chip.
2017AMD
Ryzen, EPYC, and Chiplets Rebuild AMD
Zen reached the market in 2017 as Ryzen for desktops and EPYC for servers. Chiplet packaging over Infinity Fabric let AMD build high core-count parts from smaller dies, improving usable yield and giving it a cost structure Intel's monolithic designs could not…
2021Groq
$300M Series C
Raised $300 million co-led by Tiger Global and D1 Capital, reaching unicorn status.
2022AMD
Xilinx Acquisition
AMD completed the Xilinx acquisition in February 2022. The all-stock deal was announced in October 2020 at about $35B and was worth roughly $49B at close.
2022Groq
Acquired Maxeler Technologies
Groq acquired Maxeler Technologies.
2024Groq
GroqCloud launches
Opened GroqCloud to developers; demos of open LLMs at several hundred tokens per second drew wide attention. Acquired Definitive Intelligence.
2024Groq
$640M Series D at $2.8B
Raised $640 million led by BlackRock Private Equity Partners at a $2.8 billion valuation.
2025AMD
ZT Systems Acquired and Its Factories Sold
AMD closed the ZT Systems purchase on March 31, 2025, paying $3.2B in cash plus 8.3 million shares for rack-scale AI systems design.
2025AMD
OpenAI Agrees to Deploy 6 Gigawatts of AMD GPUs
On October 6, 2025 AMD and OpenAI announced a multi-year agreement covering 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs, starting with a 1 gigawatt Instinct MI450 deployment in the second half of 2026.
2025AMD
Record $34.6B Revenue
AMD reported FY2025 revenue of $34.6B, up 34%, with net income of $4.3B and a 50% gross margin.
2025Groq
$750M at $6.9B valuation
Raised $750 million at a $6.9 billion post-money valuation, led by Disruptive.
2025Groq
Nvidia licensing deal
Nvidia signed a non-exclusive license for Groq's inference technology, reported at about $20 billion, and hired Ross, Madra and other staff. CFO Simon Edwards became CEO.
2026AMD
Meta Agrees to Deploy Up to 6 Gigawatts of AMD GPUs
On February 24, 2026 AMD and Meta announced a multi-year agreement for up to 6 gigawatts of Instinct GPUs.
2026Groq
$650M raise and new leadership
Raised $650 million led by Disruptive and Infinitum; Doug Wightman became CEO and Groq added a new COO, CTO and CPO.
2026Groq
Nvidia Cloud Partner
Became an Nvidia Cloud Partner, clearing the way to equip its data centers with Nvidia inference systems.
Acquisitions
AMD
- ZT Systems2025$4.9B
- Silo AI2024$665M
- Xilinx2022$49B
- Pensando Systems2022$1.9B
- ATI Technologies2006$5.4B
Groq
- Definitive Intelligence2024Undisclosed
- Maxeler Technologies2022Undisclosed
- Maxeler Technologies HPC Assets2022Undisclosed
Questions about AMD vs Groq
Who is the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Groq, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. is led by Lisa Su and Groq, Inc. is led by Doug Wightman. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. founded vs Groq, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. was founded in 1969 — 47 years before Groq, Inc., which was founded in 2016. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Groq, Inc..
How many employees does Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. have compared to Groq, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. employs approximately 31,000 people. A verified employee count for Groq, Inc. is not currently available.
Where are Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Groq, Inc. headquartered?
Both Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Groq, Inc. are headquartered in United States. Their local rules and tax obligations may still differ.
Who founded Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Groq, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. was founded by Jerry Sanders, Edwin Turney. Groq, Inc. was founded by Jonathan Ross, Douglas Wightman.
Which company has a longer operating history — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Groq, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. has been operating for approximately 57 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Groq, Inc. has been in operation for around 10 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the AMD vs Groq overview