The sackings are going ahead despite the company beating estimated financial earnings for this year. AMD reported third-quarter profits of US$134 million in October, 2006.

A local AMD spokesperson yesterday confirmed Australian staff numbers will remain the same with employees unaffected by the layoffs.

When asked about future staff retention plans in Australia, the spokesperson was unable to elaborate claiming Thanksgiving celebrations in the US prevented the company from getting more information from the US.

AMD acquired the Canadian graphics chip vendor ATI for US$5.4 billion. Redundant jobs across sales, marketing and general departments is expected to save AMD US$75 million within 12 months.

The layoffs are dwarfed by its rivals plans. Intel will purge 10 percent of its workforce, or 10,500 jobs by mid 2007.