AMD will license a 64-bit processor design from ARM and combine it with the Freedom Fabric interconnect technology it acquired when it earlier this year, AMD said Monday.

The result will be a new line of system-on-chip Opteron processors that AMD said will be ideal for the type of massive, web-scale workloads running in giant data centers like those operated by Facebook and Amazon.

AMD CEO Rory Read called the announcement a "seminal moment" and compared it to AMD's introduction of the first 64-bit x86 processors in 2003. AMD beat Intel to the punch with that move, and it hopes to gain a similar advantage by embracing ARM.

It's not clear yet if ARM-based CPUs will be successful in servers, but one industry analyst said the move by AMD will help. "I really think this raises ARM's server credibility, and the credibility of microservers as a segment," said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy.

Server chips based on the x86 architecture will continue to be the mainstay of AMD's server business, Read said, but he thinks the ARM-based chips will open up new markets for the company. And while AMD is focused initially on servers, he didn't rule out the possibility that it will eventually make ARM processors for client devices such as tablets as well.