American tech giant AMD announced the opening of two development centres in Serbia on September 10, further solidifying its engineering presence in the Balkans. The new facilities, located in Belgrade and Nis, will initially employ 90 engineers, with plans to expand the workforce in the near future.

AMD, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of processors, is targeting Serbia’s strong engineering talent pool to contribute to the development of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence. "Chips are the new oil," said Andrej Zdravkovic, AMD’s senior vice president and chief software officer.

The two centres, employing 60 engineers in Belgrade and 30 in Nis, will focus on software development for AMD’s computing platforms. Zdravkovic highlighted the importance of Serbia’s top engineering education system, stating that the country’s engineers will play a pivotal role in developing the next generation of AI-driven chip technology. He also noted that Serbian engineers are already contributing to AI chip development for large-scale computing centres, such as those used by Microsoft for ChatGPT.

The expansion in Serbia follows AMD’s 2021 opening of a research and development centre in Iași, Romania, and underscores the company’s commitment to growing its presence in the Balkans. The company plans to double its workforce in Serbia over the coming years, working closely with regional technology services companies like HTEC to further develop software and hardware projects.