If the AMD-Xilinx acquisition comes off, then the merged company will be the fourth largest fabless semiconductor player, says TendForce.

AMD will greatly increase its influence across industries such as 5G, data center, ADAS and industrial automation, reckons TrendForce. AMD currently  lags behind Intel and Nvidia with regards to product breadth, product adoption, technology, and revenue.

By acquiring Xilinx, AMD hopes to close the gap by leveraging the programming flexibility and parallel computing advantages of Xilinx’s FPGA products to generate commercial opportunities in 5G infrastructure, AI, ADAS, and industrial automation.

However, Xilinx has suffered YoY revenue drops for the past three quarters due to the U.S.-China trade war and executing the merger will be a test for AMD’s managerial competence.

The integration of software resources, including developer tools and libraries, will present particular difficulties for AMD, since these resources need to be compatible across CPU, GPU, and FPGA product categories.