Laid off from AMD.

What AMD layoffs have meant for employees

AMD's filings have sized its cuts and priced them, and left the map to state notices. The late-2024 plan appears in AMD's 2025 Form 10-K as a share of headcount with a severance total, and when that cut was confirmed a spokesperson would only tell The Register that AMD was "taking targeted actions across various functions in the company." The site detail sits in California's WARN report, which carries one notice under AMD, Inc. for an address in Santa Clara and one under Xilinx, Inc. for 2100 Logic Drive in San Jose, the address Xilinx's 8-K gave for its head office before the merger.

The jobs at stake have changed with the company. In its 2002 Form 10-K, AMD called itself a semiconductor manufacturer with plants in the United States, Europe and Asia, and its 2001 plan shut two of them in Austin. At the end of 2025, AMD's space came to about 6.8 million square feet for research and development, engineering, administrative and warehouse use, its 2025 Form 10-K shows, with its headquarters in Santa Clara and San Jose among its significant operations. If you're trying to tie a notice to your own job in that footprint, the employer named on it and the street address tell you more than the county, since both of the late-2024 California notices list Santa Clara County.

AMD tied the late-2024 cut to its largest growth opportunities in AI and enterprise and argued it wasn't a sign of financial trouble, by The Register's account, and the outlet put the cut at about 1,000 jobs. AMD's headcount went from the roughly 26,000 the outlet cited at the time to about 31,000 at the end of 2025. If you're explaining a layoff from that plan to your next employer, AMD's own words for it, "aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities," are plain enough to borrow, and there's more on handling that conversation in explaining a layoff.

AMD's plans of 2002, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2024 each began in the second half of a year, and several ran well past their announcements. The 2011 plan, begun on November 3, planned notifications into the first quarter of 2012, the November 2011 filing shows, and the 2012 plan wasn't substantially done until the third quarter of 2013, according to AMD's fiscal 2015 10-K, which also expected the 2015 plan to run until the third quarter of 2016. The late-2024 plan paid out $79 million of its severance during 2025. If a plan has just been announced and nothing has reached your team, the record shows AMD working through notifications and payouts for months after a plan began.

Acquisitions add their own names to the record. Xilinx, which AMD bought in 2022, announced a targeted global reduction in force of its own in January 2020, expecting the cuts by the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2020. In November 2024 a Xilinx, Inc. notice for its San Jose address went to California beside AMD's own. If you came to AMD through Xilinx, it's worth knowing which entity employs you on paper, because the Logic Drive notice carried the Xilinx, Inc. name rather than AMD's, and that's the name to look under in our tracker. For California and Texas, the two states AMD's matched rows in our tracker come from, our pages on filing in California and filing in Texas cover unemployment claims.

A sourced history of AMD layoffs

• November 2024, cut of about 4% of AMD's workforce

  AMD said targeted steps would cut its workforce worldwide by about 4%, a spokesperson told The Register. Notices dated November 11 list 57 AMD jobs in Santa Clara and 72 Xilinx jobs in San Jose, effective January 13, 2025, per California's WARN report.

• Third quarter of 2015, plan cutting about 5% of headcount

  To simplify the business, the plan called for cutting global headcount by about 5% and outsourcing certain IT services, booking about $27 million for severance and benefit costs, per AMD's 2015 Form 10-K.

• Fourth quarter of 2014, plan cutting about 6% of headcount

  Designed to improve operating efficiencies, the plan reduced global headcount by about 6%, booking $44 million for severance and the continuation of certain benefits, AMD's fiscal 2015 10-K reports.

• Fourth quarter of 2012, workforce reduction of about 14%

  To improve its cost structure and compete in core growth areas, AMD cut about 14% of its workforce and booked about $90 million of restructuring expense, mostly severance, the 10-K for fiscal 2015 shows.

• November 2011, plan involving about 1,400 employees

  Begun November 3 to rebalance the workforce toward faster-growing market segments, the plan involved about 1,400 employees and an estimated $56 million in severance and benefit-continuation costs, according to AMD's November 2011 filing.

• December 2002, plan to cut about 2,000 positions

  Facing weak demand and excess industry inventory, AMD set out to cut about 2,000 positions, 15% of its employees; 929 employees had been terminated by December 29, its 2002 Form 10-K shows.

• 2001, plan that closed Fabs 14 and 15 in Austin

  Citing an industry slowdown and falling revenue, AMD closed two of its Austin fabs and cut back in Penang, Malaysia; by December 29, 2002, 2,209 employees had been terminated, 720 of them in positions tied to the fabs, according to its 2002 Form 10-K.

What to do if you're laid off from AMD

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. AMD's biggest hubs: California, Texas. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what AMD's hub states run: California, Texas, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.