AMD to axe more than 1,000 jobs

Chipmaker AMD is to slash at least 1,000 jobs from its global workforce as part of a worldwide cost savings operation, the company has announced.

The company, which is building a custom graphics processor for Nintendo’s Wii U, said it expects to complete most redundancies by the end of 2012.

The firm said it expects to make operational savings of about $10 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, and $118 million in 2012.

Shares in the company climbed 5 per cent yesterday

Reducing its cost structure help AMD be more competitive, the firm’s CEO Rory Read said.

“The actions we are taking are designed to improve our ability to consistently address the needs of our global customer base and stake leadership positions in lower power, emerging markets and the cloud,” he added.

AMD, founded in 1969, is the world’s second-largest supplier of microprocessors. The firm provides GPUs for PC and certain games consoles, though both Sony and Microsoft have in recent times opted for Nvidia to supply the GPU to its platforms.