AMD Acquires ATI in Landmark $5.4 Billion Deal

AMD confirms the $5.4 billion acquisition of graphics firm ATI, marking a strategic shift toward integrated CPU and GPU technologies.

On July 24, 2006, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz and ATI CEO Dave Orton announced a $5.4 billion cash and stock acquisition in New York. The deal, unanimously approved by both boards, followed failed negotiations with Nvidia where CEO Jensen Huang reportedly requested leadership of the merged company. The acquisition integrated ATI’s R600 GPU development, eventually launching as the Radeon HD 2900 series. This merger paved the way for the 2011 Fusion APU line and the transition from GCN to RDNA architecture. Today, AMD continues this legacy with Ryzen AI Max processors featuring up to 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units. The industry marked the end of an era in 2011 when Tom’s Hardware published a retrospective on ATI’s 25-year history following its full integration into AMD branding.