THE SUSTAINABILITY INTERVIEW
The water risk Water presents a particularly complex challenge for semiconductor manufacturing. Production requires large volumes of ultra-pure water to clean wafers and support fabrication processes.
AMD’ s wafer manufacturing supply chain used more water in 2025, even as water intensity improved. Justin says AMD’ s estimates show a 14 % reduction in water intensity between 2024 and 2025, alongside a 16 % increase in total water use and a 23 % increase in water reuse.
“ Directionally, it’ s good to see greater efficiency in water use and increases in water reuse,” he says.“ But the increasing absolute water use continues to be a challenge.”
The main drivers were increased demand and more advanced manufacturing nodes. A technology node refers to a generation of semiconductor manufacturing processes, and newer processes often require more water.
AMD does not operate the wafer fabs itself. Its role is to understand environmental performance and risk at manufacturing partners and encourage improvement. The company conducts an annual water-risk assessment that considers regional water stress. Sites in areas of high or very high water risk receive further scrutiny.
Potential measures include back-up water supplies, water-reduction programmes and site-specific targets. AMD is also addressing resource efficiency through chip design. Chiplets divide a processor into smaller dies, which can improve wafer utilisation.
Yield describes the proportion of usable chips obtained from a wafer. Higher yield can reduce the number of wafers required for the same functional output.
AMD also uses techniques including harvesting and redundancy repair to increase the number of usable chips.
“ Improving the effective yield per wafer reduces overall wafer demand and associated environmental impacts,” Justin explains. AMD estimates that these strategies saved more water and carbon between 2022 and
32 October 2026