Advancing AMD Product Innovation Through Circular Design

At AMD, we think holistically about lifecycle management, starting with product design through system eco-labels. Design considerations are particularly important given the scaled sustainability implications that occur further down the value chain, namely product manufacturing and use. Key design considerations at AMD include modular architecture and wafer optimization, recycled content, hazardous substances and product packaging.

Modular Design and Architecture

For over a decade, AMD has successfully been designing solutions using smaller, more specialized chiplets. For example, a central chiplet called an anchor can orchestrate efficient power management for all the chiplets across the “system on chip” (SOC). Some chiplets require continuous power, some require dynamic power adjustments based on real-time requirements and others have dedicated power budgets to manage independently while still notifying the anchor about their power needs. 

Modular design can also scale and adapt to different workloads without requiring significant redesigns or new hardware for every application. This helps improve resource utilization because systems can be tailored to meet specific performance needs. This is particularly important in high-performance computing that powers demanding workloads and advancements in health care, energy, climate science, transportation and scientific research. 

The AMD EPYC™ and AMD Instinct™ product lines that use cutting-edge modular design and architecture and together or separately power 60% of the top 20 most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world (Green500, June 2025).^[i]

Wafer Yield Optimization

AMD uses wafer design and manufacturing strategies such as harvesting and redundancy repair to optimize the number of usable chips per wafer, known as yield. Through sophisticated modeling and simulation tools, and collaboration with our wafer foundry partners, we can optimize resource efficiency and reduce waste in semiconductor manufacturing. 

Wafer harvesting and redundancy repair identifies and repurposes sections of a die that may have minor defects but are still fully functional for certain applications. Instead of discarding a die with minor defects, those die can be reconfigured and repurposed for different use cases. Core harvesting, for example, can occur if 1 core has a defect on an 8-core die, resulting in that core being disabled, so the 7-core die can be used in a lower core count product. Another approach is to design in targeted redundancy, so if a defect occurs in one part of a die, a redundant or backup cell can be used rather than scrapping the entire die. As a result, the number and yield percentage of usable die per wafer increases, lowering the total number of wafers manufactured thus reducing raw materials, energy, emissions and water usage.

AMD estimates that from 2022-2024, the environmental benefits of AMD wafer harvesting and redundancy strategies resulted in savings of approximately 843 million liters of water and 930,000 metric tCO2e of emissions. This amounts to roughly 1.2 times more water use and 6.7 times more carbon emissions than AMD operations during this timeframe.^[ii]

Recycled Content in Product 

In 2024, AMD launched new initiatives aiming to increase recycled content in our products, thereby advancing our circular economy and decarbonization strategies. We identified priority materials for sourcing recycled content, assessed the existing state of recycled content usage within our supply chain (measured by weight) and explored opportunities to increase the use of recycled materials in our products when feasible. We initially prioritized aluminum and copper, as these represent the largest materials by weight across our product portfolio in 2024.

Our efforts in 2024 and 2025 entailed working with our Manufacturing Suppliers, including through supplier business reviews and sub-tier smelter refinery surveys. For example, we identified copper recycling activities currently being used in our supply chain. In addition, there is supplier-led research into new sources for copper recovery. We continue to work with our Manufacturing Suppliers to identify which aluminum smelters are being used for sourcing aluminum. 

We will continue these efforts and report on our progress while also working with industry groups, such as the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) and Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI), to coordinate and standardize these efforts across the value chain. In 2024, the RBA issued its updated Circular Materials Landscape Assessment, reinforcing the need to standardize data, design reverse supply chains and improve assurance of environmental and labor protections.

Product Packaging

Through our suppliers, we use packaging materials for the shipping and handling of our products on their journeys to consumers – this includes processors in a box (PIBs), graphics cards, FPGAs and adaptive SoCs, evaluation boards, system-on-modules and AMD Alveo™ accelerator cards. We offer packaging that meets the amended requirements of the EU Packaging Directive (94/62/EC). AMD specifies the packaging materials used, including the recyclability of materials and the use of recycled content, and continuously seeks to incorporate environmentally preferable packing materials, including non-toxic dyes. 

For example, in 2024, AMD began efforts to evaluate replacing recyclable foam end-cap packaging in server products with a material that utilizes recycled content. Those efforts continued into 2025 as teams work through design enhancements and iterations.

Originally published in AMD 2024-25 Corporate Responsibility Report

Footnotes

^[i] EPYC-046D - GREEN500 list as of June 2025, https://top500.org/lists/green500/list/2025/06/.

^[ii] AMD estimates the number of annual wafers saved based on "die harvesting" and "redundancy repaired die." Using the TechInsights tool, AMD estimated the per wafer emission and water for the corresponding manufacturing node and year (from 2022 through 2024). The total metric ton of emissions saved is approximately 930,000 metric tCO2e and the total water saved is 843 million liters. This represents more than 6.7 times emissions compared to AMD totals for Operations (Scope 1 and Scope 2 Market-based) and about 1.2 times AMD total water usage from 2022 through 2024.