Entrepreneur sells @AMD Twitter handle to AMD for a charitable sum

12 Jun 2013

Image via turtleteeth/Shutterstock

Advanced Micro Devices – better known as AMD – has been given the @AMD Twitter username from Seattle entrepreneur Adam M Doppelt in exchange for US$50,000 for two of his local charities.

Chip-maker AMD was founded in 1969 and is the second-largest global supplier of microprocessors based on the x86 architecture, behind Intel. Its initials form its brand name and its trading name on the New York Stock Exchange, and the company had been trying to get its hands on @AMD for two years now, according to GeekWire, offering Doppelt laptops and AMD processors in exchange.

Doppelt is the co-founder of Urbanspoon and new start-up Dwellable. But, as it turns out, he’s also quite the philanthropist. Happy enough with the computers and processors he has, Doppelt refused to give up those precious three letters unless AMD donated US$50,000 to charities in his hometown.

As of yesterday, AMD took on @AMD, and charities FareStart and the Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue are each US$25,000 richer. FareStart was selected by Doppelt and is a culinary job training and placement programme for homeless and disadvantaged individuals, while the Boys & Girls Club, chosen by AMD, is a youth outreach programme.

Now, Doppelt’s followers will find him over at @adamdoppelt, where he tweeted that the loss of @AMD was “a bittersweet day”.

Tweeting image via turtleteeth/Shutterstock

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com