AMD vs Lattice Semiconductor: Founders, CEOs and History
AMD was founded in 1969 by Jerry Sanders, Edwin Turney and is led by Lisa Su. Lattice Semiconductor was founded in 1983 by C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, Ray Capece and is led by Ford Tamer.
Company facts
AMD
- Founded
- 1969
- Headquarters
- Santa Clara, California
- Current CEO
- Lisa Su
- Employees
- 31,000
Lattice Semiconductor
- Founded
- 1983
- Headquarters
- Hillsboro, Oregon, United States
- Current CEO
- Ford Tamer
- Employees
- 1,800
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.
Lattice Semiconductor
C. Norman Winningstad
C. Norman Winningstad co-founded Lattice Semiconductor in 1983. As a highly experienced tech veteran in Oregon's 'Silicon Forest,' he provided the critical early venture funding and business legitimacy required to launch a highly risky semiconductor startup fo…
Rahul Sud
Rahul Sud co-founded Lattice Semiconductor in 1983. Drawing on his massive technical experience at Intel, he drove the absolutely critical innovation of using CMOS technology to create field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), ensuring Lattice chips consumed sig…
Ray Capece
Ray Capece co-founded Lattice Semiconductor in 1983 alongside Sud and Winningstad.
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
Lattice Semiconductor
- Cyrus Y. Tsui1988–2005
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
He bought Vantis from AMD in 1999 and the Agere FPGA business in 2002. He left in 2005.
Source - Darin G. Billerbeck2010–2018
President and Chief Executive Officer
A sale of the company to Canyon Bridge was blocked in 2017. Jim Anderson succeeded him in 2018.
Source - Jim Anderson2018–2024
Former President and Chief Executive Officer
Revenue grew from $398.8 million in 2018 to a record $737.2 million in 2023, and Lattice went from net losses to $259.1 million of net income in 2023. Anderson left in 2024 to become CEO of Coherent.
Source - Ford Tamer2024–present
President and Chief Executive Officer
Tamer is steering Lattice from a pure FPGA vendor toward a combined silicon and firmware supplier for servers. Revenue rose 42% and 62% year over year in Q1 and Q2 2026 under his leadership.
Source
Timeline: AMD and Lattice Semiconductor 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.
1983Lattice Semiconductor
Lattice Founded
C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, and Ray Capece found Lattice in Oregon to make programmable logic devices.
1989Lattice Semiconductor
Initial Public Offering
After a 1987 Chapter 11 reorganization, Lattice completes its initial public offering.
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.
2002Lattice Semiconductor
Agere FPGA Business Acquired
Lattice bought the FPGA business of Agere Systems in 2002.
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.
2011Lattice Semiconductor
SiliconBlue Acquisition
Lattice acquires SiliconBlue Technologies for about $62 million, adding the low-power iCE40 FPGA line.
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.
2015Lattice Semiconductor
Silicon Image Acquired
Lattice bought Silicon Image in 2015 for about $600 million.
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…
2017Lattice Semiconductor
Canyon Bridge Deal Blocked
President Trump blocked the sale of Lattice to the China-backed fund Canyon Bridge in September 2017.
2018Lattice Semiconductor
Jim Anderson Becomes CEO
Jim Anderson became chief executive of Lattice in September 2018.
2021Lattice Semiconductor
Acquired Mirametrix
Lattice Semiconductor acquired Mirametrix. Lattice acquired Mirametrix, a Montreal computer-vision software company, to add AI software for presence detection and attention sensing.
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.
2024Lattice Semiconductor
Ford Tamer Becomes CEO
Ford Tamer becomes CEO in September 2024 after Jim Anderson left to lead Coherent.
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.
2025Lattice Semiconductor
FY2025 Revenue of $523.3M
Lattice reports $523.3 million in revenue, $3.1 million in GAAP net income, and 1,800 employees as an industrial inventory correction eases.
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.
2026Lattice Semiconductor
AMI Acquisition Completed
Announced on May 4 and closed on July 27, 2026, the $1.65 billion AMI deal adds server firmware and management software to Lattice's FPGA business.
2026Lattice Semiconductor
Record Q2 Revenue of $201.1M
Q2 2026 revenue rises 62% year over year to $201.1 million on data center and AI demand.
Acquisitions
AMD
- ZT Systems2025$4.9B
- Silo AI2024$665M
- Xilinx2022$49B
- Pensando Systems2022$1.9B
- ATI Technologies2006$5.4B
Lattice Semiconductor
- AMI2026$1.6B
- Mirametrix2021Undisclosed
- SiliconBlue Technologies2011$62M
Questions about AMD vs Lattice Semiconductor
Who is the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Lattice Semiconductor Corporation?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. is led by Lisa Su and Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is led by Ford Tamer. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. founded vs Lattice Semiconductor Corporation?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. was founded in 1969 — 14 years before Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, which was founded in 1983. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Lattice Semiconductor Corporation.
How many employees does Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. have compared to Lattice Semiconductor Corporation?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. employs approximately 31,000 people, while Lattice Semiconductor Corporation employs approximately 1,800. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. has the larger workforce at 31,000 employees, compared to Lattice Semiconductor Corporation's 1,800. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Lattice Semiconductor Corporation headquartered?
Both Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Lattice Semiconductor Corporation are headquartered in United States. Their local rules and tax obligations may still differ.
Who founded Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Lattice Semiconductor Corporation?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. was founded by Jerry Sanders, Edwin Turney. Lattice Semiconductor Corporation was founded by C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, Ray Capece.
Which company has a longer operating history — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Lattice Semiconductor Corporation?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. has been operating for approximately 57 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Lattice Semiconductor Corporation has been in operation for around 43 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 Lattice Semiconductor overview