Do we know how many people AMD hired in recent years? Because often with news like that it is just companies cutting back a bit after having undergone an even larger expansion not too long ago
AMD's situation has massively shifted during that period, but it does add some perspective. In 2016 they'd have probably loved to have more employees, but couldn't afford them unlike now. And in recent times the Xilin aquisition added a bunch of employees, with some possibly redundant?
Overall i probably believe AMD's comment:
AMD argues its cutbacks aren't a sign it's struggling financially. Instead, it's more about refocusing its resources towards higher-margin products
I assume lesser profitable margine products are e.g. dedicated consumer GPUs?