An Unknown Hacker Stole the Source Code for AMD's Big Navi and Xbox Series X GPU “Arden” and Tried to Sell It for $100 Million

AMD announced the theft of intellectual property that was then given away to the public on the Internet. The stolen information refers to the source code for the Big Navi and Arden GPUs. Now, the unknown hacker is asking for $100 million for the stolen source code.

AMD has filed two DCMA (Digital Age Copyright Law) complaints regarding Github repositories containing stolen code from the Navi 10, Navi 21, and Arden GPUs.

Navi 21 and Arden especially are of particular interest, since Arden should provide the work of future Microsoft Xbox Series X consoles, and Navi 21 is the latest development based on the RDNA 2 architecture, which will be a part of flagship Radeon video cards.

Github immediately removed the repositories, but other sources remained, including 4chan, where the information was posted.

The hacker says that he found the source code of the AMD Navi GPU on a hacked computer of one of the employees, downloaded unencrypted data, and now tries to sell it for $100 million. If the buyer is not found, he promises to publish the full source code, but the files will be protected with passwords that will only be available to certain individuals.

According to AMD, in December 2019, they were approached by a person who claimed that he had test files related to many of the company's current and future products. Some of them were posted on the Internet but then removed at the request of AMD.

AMD stated about the theft on its site:

At AMD, data security and the protection of our intellectual property are a priority. In December 2019, we were contacted by someone who claimed to have test files related to a subset of our current and future graphics products, some of which were recently posted online, but have since been taken down(...) We are working closely with law enforcement officials and other experts as a part of an ongoing criminal investigation.