AMD Admits Its New Graphics Tech Has Been Stolen, Rumoured To Be The Xbox Series X GPU

Chip-maker AMD has acknowledged that a hacker stole some of the company's graphics IP and is reportedly demanding $100 million for its safe return. In a statement to its website, AMD said it was contacted in December 2019 by an individual who claimed to have access to "test files" for the company's current and future graphics products. Some of these assets were posted online to the graphics forum GitHub before AMD took them down with a DMCA notice.

This person has obtained "additional files" beyond the ones made publicly available, AMD said. The company said it's working with law enforcement and experts in its criminal investigation.

AMD attempted to downplay the significance of the breach, saying, "We believe the stolen graphics IP is not core to the competitiveness or security of our graphics products." The company went on to say that it has no reason to believe the hacker has any other AMD tech in their control at this time.

TorrentFreak reports that the hacker stole graphics code related to AMD's Navi and Arden GPUs. The Arden GPU is said to be the codename for the 12-teraflop Xbox Series X GPU.

The person claiming to be the perpetrator told TorrentFreak that they discovered the source code on an "unprotected computer/server," and accessed it by using "some exploits."

This person said the value of the source code is $100 million, but it's unclear how they arrived at that figure. Whatever the case, the person claiming to be the perpetrator said if no one comes forward with the cash to buy the code, they will "just leak everything."

GameSpot has contacted Microsoft seeking additional clarification.