AMD Fiscal 2025 10-K Adds New Export Control Risks
AMD reports new risks related to export controls, increased competition from Chinese companies, and potential issues with operations in Taiwan.
AMD filed its fiscal 2025 10-K on February 4, 2026. Set against the fiscal 2024 filing, the risk factors section has 16 new passages, 15 dropped passages, 10 passages where the wording got stronger or softer and 16 lighter rewordings. Everything quoted below is the company's own text, word for word.
New This Year
Export Control
Evolving U.S. government policy toward semiconductor exports, particularly in the context of national security and foreign policy priorities could adversely affect our business. In October 2023, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the United States Department of Commerce issued requirements for the export of certain advanced computing items to a party headquartered in, or with an ultimate parent headquartered in, any of Country Groups D1, D4 or D5, including China (a D5 Country). These controls prevent us from shipping certain AMD Instinct™ integrated circuits and certain AMD Versal™ FPGAs to China, or to customers outside of the United States who are headquartered in—or whose ultimate parent is headquartered in—a D5 Country, without a license. […]
Export Control
Additional export restrictions imposed in the future may not only impact our ability to serve China but could also impact our ability to serve other markets. If any new export controls impact more of our products, we may be unable to sell our inventory of such products and we may further incur inventory and related charges since there is no assurance that the U.S. government will grant licenses at all or in a timely manner. Even if we are granted licenses, the licenses may be temporary or could impose onerous conditions for us or our customers. If we are not granted licenses, we may be unable to develop a competitive product for the China market that is not subject to licensing requirements. […]
Export Control
In January 2025, BIS issued a final rule, commonly referred to as the “AI Diffusion Rule,” that would have imposed new restrictions on the export, reexport and in-country transfer of certain advanced semiconductor devices and technology. In May 2025, BIS announced its intention to rescind the AI Diffusion Rule, publish a regulation formalizing the rescission, and issue replacement rules in the future. The replacement rules may limit our ability to engage in certain business transactions, require new export licenses, delay shipments, or necessitate changes in our compliance processes and product designs to ensure regulatory compliance. […]
Export Control
We are subject to U.S. laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which restrict the export of certain products and technologies to certain countries, including China, Russia, and Belarus, among others. These restrictions may limit our ability to sell certain products or technologies in these markets or to certain customers.
China and Taiwan
The implementation or increase of any tariffs, trade protection measures or restrictions, or retaliatory actions from foreign governments could result in lost sales and adversely impact our reputation and business. The U.S. government has instituted or proposed changes in trade policies that include higher tariffs on imports into the U.S. and other government regulations affecting trade between the United States and other countries where we conduct our business. Such changes to U.S. trade policy have the potential to adversely impact the U.S. economy or sectors thereof and could significantly impact our business, in particular the import of products used in our business that are manufactured outside the U.S. […]
AI Demand
Product transition risks may increase as the computing industry shifts toward shorter launch cycles and a broader range of accelerated computing platforms. Product transitions are complex and as such we may ship both new and prior-generation products concurrently. Customer adoption patterns can vary and while some customers may shift to newer products more quickly and reduce demand for current-generation offerings, other customers may lower their inventory of existing products before purchasing new ones. The increased frequency of product transitions and expansion of our product portfolio heightens the challenges of managing our supply and demand, which could adversely affect our revenue and inventory management. The increasing frequency and complexity of our newly introduced products may also result in unanticipated quality or production issues that could result in product delays.
There are 10 more new passages in the filing.
Wording That Changed
New words in this year's text are in bold.
Export Control, stronger
Fiscal 2024:
We have equity interests in two joint ventures (collectively, the THATIC JV) with Higon Information Technology Co., Ltd. (THATIC), a third-party Chinese entity. In June 2019, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the United States Department of Commerce added certain Chinese entities to the Entity List, including THATIC and the THATIC JV. Since that time, the United States administration has called for changes to domestic and foreign policy, including policies with respect to China and Russia. Specifically, United States-China trade relations remain uncertain as the United States continues to add more Chinese companies to the Entity List and more regulations targeted to advanced computing, semiconductor manufacturing, and emerging technologies such as AI. […]
Fiscal 2025:
We have equity interests in two joint ventures (collectively, the THATIC JV) with Higon Information Technology Co., Ltd. (THATIC), a third-party Chinese entity. In June 2019, BIS added certain Chinese entities to the Entity List, including THATIC and the THATIC JV. Since that time, the United States administration has called for changes to domestic and foreign policy, including policies with respect to China and Russia. Specifically, United States-China trade relations remain uncertain as the United States continues to add more Chinese companies to the Entity List and introduce new regulations on advanced computing, semiconductor manufacturing, and AI, while China has imposed retaliatory tariffs. Moreover, as the U.S. […]
China and Taiwan, softer
Fiscal 2024:
We maintain operations around the world, including in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Latin America and Asia. We rely on third-party wafer foundries in the United States, Europe and Asia. Nearly all product assembly and final testing of our products is performed at third-party operated manufacturing facilities, in China, Malaysia and Taiwan. Our shipping services are provided by third-party subcontractors. We also have international sales operations. International sales, as a percent of net revenue, were 66% for the year ended December 28, 2024. We expect that international sales will continue to be a significant portion of total sales in the foreseeable future. The political, legal and economic risks associated with our worldwide operations include, without limitation: expropriation; changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic conditions; […]
Fiscal 2025:
We maintain operations around the world, including in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Latin America and Asia. We rely on third-party wafer foundries in the United States, Europe and Asia. Nearly all product assembly and final testing of our products is performed at third-party operated manufacturing facilities, in China, Malaysia and Taiwan. Our shipping services are provided by third-party subcontractors. We also have international sales operations. International sales, as a percent of net revenue, were 67% for the year ended December 27, 2025. We expect that international sales will continue to be a significant portion of total sales in the foreseeable future. The political, legal and economic risks associated with our worldwide operations include, without limitation: expropriation; changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic conditions; […]
AI Demand, softer
Fiscal 2024:
Industry-wide fluctuations in the computer marketplace have materially adversely affected us in the past and may materially adversely affect us in the future. We offer products that are used in different end markets and the demand for our products can vary among our Data Center, Client, Gaming and Embedded end markets. For instance, in our Data Center segment, we offer products that are optimized for generative AI applications and since the fourth quarter of 2023, we have experienced significant demand for our AI accelerators. The demand for such products in part will depend on the extent to which our customers utilize generative AI solutions in a wide variety of applications, and both the near-term and long-term trajectory of such generative AI solutions is unknown. […]
Fiscal 2025:
Industry-wide fluctuations in the computer marketplace have materially adversely affected us in the past and may materially adversely affect us in the future. We offer products that are used in different end markets and the demand for our products can vary among our Data Center, Client, Gaming and Embedded end markets. In our Data Center segment, we offer products that are optimized for generative AI applications and since 2024, we have experienced significant demand for our AI accelerators. The demand for such products will in part depend on the extent to which our customers utilize generative AI solutions in a wide variety of applications, and both the near-term and long-term trajectory of such generative AI solutions is unknown. […]
AI Demand, stronger
Fiscal 2024:
In addition, our GPU revenue in the past has been affected in part by the volatility of the cryptocurrency mining market. If we are unable to manage the risks related to the volatility of the cryptocurrency mining market (including potential actions by global monetary authorities), our GPU business could be materially adversely affected. The success of our semi-custom SoC products in our Gaming segment is dependent on securing customers for our semi-custom design pipeline and consumer market conditions, including the success of game console systems and next generation consoles for Sony and Microsoft. Our Embedded segment primarily includes embedded CPUs and GPUs, APUs, FPGAs and Adaptive SoC products some of which are subject to macroeconomic trends and volatile business conditions. […]
Fiscal 2025:
Our Client and Gaming segment revenue is focused on the consumer desktop and notebook PC segments and will depend in part on the market’s adoption of AI PCs. We are actively building AI capabilities into all our Client products, such as Ryzen AI PC processors, but there can be no assurance about the rate and pace of adoption of such product offerings. In the past, revenue from the Client and Gaming segment has experienced a decline driven by, among other factors, the adoption of smaller and other form factors, increased competition and changes in replacement cycles. In addition, our GPU revenue in the past has been affected in part by the volatility of the cryptocurrency mining market. […]
Competition, softer
Fiscal 2024:
Nvidia’s Data Center GPU market share position, significant financial resources, introduction of competitive new products and proprietary software ecosystem have enabled it to market and price its products in a manner to encourage the selection of Nvidia-based systems and to influence customers who do business with us. We may be materially adversely affected by Nvidia’s business practices, including allocation strategies and pricing actions; product mix and introduction schedules; and product bundling strategies. Nvidia’s practices can limit customers’ ability to choose non-Nvidia products, including our products, and in turn, may limit our market share and decrease our margins and profitability, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. We expect Nvidia to continue to heavily invest substantial resources in research and development, marketing and other technology companies.
Fiscal 2025:
Our competitors may use their market position and financial resources to market and price their products in a way to dissuade customers from purchasing from us. For example, Intel Corporation (Intel) uses its microprocessor market position to price its products aggressively and target our customers and channel partners with special incentives. These aggressive activities have reduced and may reduce our unit sales and average selling prices for many of our products, adversely affecting our business. Similarly, Nvidia Corporation (Nvidia) leverages its market position in data center GPU, financial resources, and proprietary software ecosystem to promote its systems and influences customers who do business with us. […]
Competition, softer
Fiscal 2024:
We market and sell our products directly to OEMs and through authorized third-party distributors. From time to time, our products are diverted from our authorized distribution channels and are sold on the “gray market.” Our inability to control gray market activities could result in customer satisfaction issues because any time products are purchased outside our authorized distribution channels there is a risk that our customers are buying counterfeit or substandard products, including products that may have been altered, mishandled or damaged, or are used products represented as new. Additionally, products acquired on the gray market or through other unauthorized channels are at higher risk of being re-sold to prohibited end-users, misused, and deployed for uses that do not align with AMD’s ethics, values or compliance standards. […]
Fiscal 2025:
We market and sell our products through a global, multi-tier network of authorized distributors, resellers and OEMs. Despite programmatic controls, audits and contractual restrictions, our pricing programs may be misused, and unauthorized resellers or unauthorized resale can occur on the “gray market”. Gray market activities could result in customer satisfaction issues because any time products are purchased outside our authorized distribution channels there is a risk that our customers are buying counterfeit or substandard products, including products that may have been altered, mishandled or damaged, or are used products represented as new. These substandard gray market products may have higher-than-expected failure rates and as a result, we may face brand protection risks, reputational harm or unauthorized warranty claims. […]
4 more passages changed tone in the same way.
Dropped From Last Year
Export Control
In October 2023, BIS issued new requirements for certain advanced computing items that apply to the export of products classified ECCN 3A090 or 4A090 to a party headquartered in, or with an ultimate parent headquartered in, any of Country Groups D1, D4 or D5, including China. These controls prevent us from shipping certain AMD Instinct™ integrated circuits and certain AMD Versal™ FPGAs to China, or to customers outside of the United States whose ultimate parent is headquartered in a D5 country (including China), without a license. These controls also require us to file a Notified Advanced Computing (NAC) notification with BIS 25 days before shipping certain Versal FPGAs to China, or to customers outside of the United States whose ultimate parent is headquartered in a D5 country (including China). […]
Competition
In addition, we are entering markets with current and new competitors who may be able to adapt more quickly to customer requirements and emerging technologies. For example, the AI market is subject to rapid technological change, product obsolescence, frequent new product introductions and feature enhancements, changes in end-user requirements and evolving industry trends and legal standards. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to compete successfully against current or new competitors who may have stronger positions in these new markets or superior ability to anticipate customer requirements and emerging industry trends. While we see significant opportunity in AI, we expect intense competition from companies such as Nvidia in the supply of GPUs and other accelerators for the AI market. […]
Competition
Intel’s microprocessor market share position, significant financial resources, introduction of competitive new products, and existing relationships with top-tier OEMs have enabled it to market and price its products aggressively, to target our customers and our channel partners with special incentives and to influence customers who do business with us. These aggressive activities have in the past resulted in lower unit sales and a lower average selling price for many of our products and adversely affected our margins and profitability. Intel also dominates the computer system platform and has a heavy influence on PC manufacturers, other PC industry participants, and benchmarks. It is able to drive de facto standards and specifications for x86 microprocessors that could cause us and other companies to have delayed access to such standards. […]
Competition
From time to time, governments provide incentives or make other investments that could benefit and give a competitive advantage to our competitors. For example, the United States government enacted the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America and Science Act (CHIPS Act) of 2022 to provide financial incentives to the U.S. semiconductor industry. Government incentives, including the CHIPS Act, may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If our competitors can benefit from such government incentives and we cannot, it could strengthen our competitors’ relative position and have a material adverse effect on our business.
Competition
The markets in which our products are sold are highly competitive and rapidly evolving. We expect that competition will continue to be intense due to rapid technological changes, new and evolving industry standards, changing customer preferences and requirements, and frequent introductions by our competitors or new competitors of products that may provide better performance/experience or that may include additional features that render our products comparatively less competitive.
Competition
◦Nvidia’s dominance in the graphics processing unit market and its aggressive business practices may limit our ability to compete effectively on a level playing field.
9 more passages from last year's section did not come back.
Both filings are on EDGAR: fiscal 2025 10-K and fiscal 2024 10-K.