This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Technology 100 Journal 2026.
AMD has climbed nine places in the latest Brand Finance Technology 100 ranking, following a 75% increase in brand value to USD19.2 billion. The brand now ranks among the top 30 most valuable and strongest technology brands globally and has become the fourth most valuable semiconductor brand worldwide. In a recent interview with Brand Finance, Steven Fund, Corporate VP of Brand Marketing at AMD, discusses the key milestones behind the company’s impressive growth, how it has strengthened its core brand identity, and his views on the impact of AI on brands and marketing.
AMD has demonstrated strong performance in the Technology 100 2026 ranking, now ranking among the top 30 most valuable and top 30 strongest technology brands globally. What would you consider as the defining moments or milestones in building and strengthening the AMD brand over the past three to five years?
Corporate VP,
Brand Marketing
When I joined AMD in late 2021, the perception of the company was weighted toward its PC and gaming-centric roots, while its business strategy was focused on a data-centric future.
The company’s decision to acquire Xilinx was a pivotal moment to redefine what AMD stood for and shift the focus from product brands Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC to the AMD brand. At that time, AMD was thought of as the cheaper alternative to Intel, but we wanted to shape our perception to better align with our portfolio as a leader in high performance computing.
To understand the challenges we faced, we conducted a thorough assessment:
- We lacked a corporate narrative providing a central framework for how AMD’s vision, mission, and strategy was communicated globally to employees, customers, developers, media, influencers, and investors
- Processes and governance were insufficient to effectively tell a consistent story
- Multiple agencies operating independently with no global campaign strategy, outdated brand identity, or central oversight, resulting in minimal sharing of campaigns, results, or best practices
- Countries ran their own local initiatives and campaigns through one-off activations without a consistent strategy.
- Our tonality was often backfooted. Leadership brands lead and challenger brands challenge.
Key enablers for strengthening the AMD brand included:
- Clearly connecting the brand idea to the company’s culture and vision and customer benefits
- Introducing “together we advance_” as a unifying platform that works: 1. across the whole AMD business; 2. in all our markets; 3. across our entire culture. 4. to engage our customers, partners and employees. Employees became a base of over 30,000 true believers by linking their role to “together we advance.”
- Centralising brand management and creating brand guidelines to achieve visual and strategic consistency
- Adopting active leadership across visual identity and tonality in our marketing communications
- Partnering with the right creative agencies who deeply understand the essence of “together we advance_” and can bring it to life through storytelling that’s fitting for a global technology leader. Our brand story is not only about “what we make” (leadership products) but “what we make possible” (with our partners’ ingenuity) to advance the world
- Targeting the right audiences with messaging that highlights AMD’s unique strengths, delivered at the right time through the right channels
- Elevating our presence in high-visibility moments (e.g., CES) to build trust and credibility
- Rebalancing product logos so AMD takes prominence over brands like Ryzen, Radeon, and EPYC, reinforcing focus on our brand
Could you share a few key takeaways on how you see AI transforming the future of brands and marketing?
AI is often thought of as making marketing faster or more efficient. That’s true, but it misses the bigger point. What’s most interesting to me is how AI is changing both how brands are experienced and how marketing gets done.
From a brand perspective, AI lets us express a clear point of view in more adaptive and relevant ways. Great brands have always been built on differentiating ideas, trust, and consistency. AI doesn’t replace that; it strengthens it. It allows brands to respond to context, behaviour, and intent without losing coherence.
Instead of fixed messages, brands can behave more like living systems: consistent in who they are, but flexible in how they show up. When done well, that makes brands become more useful, more personal, and ultimately, more human.
AI is also transforming marketing. Decisions that once depended heavily on intuition or long feedback cycles can now be informed by real-time signals and data. Rather than removing the need for judgment, this elevates it. Marketers can spend less time managing complexity and more time deciding what matters most to create meaningful impact.
Personalisation is where these shifts come together. For years, personalised marketing was costly and complex.
AI removes much of that limitation; it enables messaging, creativity, and experiences to be timelier and more relevant to individuals. Teenagers aren’t all the same, and neither are IT decision makers. AI finally gives us the tools to reflect that reality.
Creatively, AI accelerates experimentation and learning. Teams can test ideas faster, understand what resonates, and scale stronger work with more confidence. Creativity doesn’t get smaller - it gets sharper.
AI expands what marketing can contribute to brand building, growth, and strategy. For marketers, this is a moment of opportunity: to apply AI thoughtfully, shaping a future where brands remain relevant, trusted, and genuinely useful.
