If you are a long-time PC user, it must have happened to you at least once that when you booted your PC, you got a flash screen from American Megatrends before the BIOS of your motherboard manufacturer popped up. Now, where did American Megatrends come from? You did not buy their motherboard, nor do you have any American Megatrends hardware or software installed in your system. So, what’s the deal with them? Let’s find out.
American Megatrends (AMI): A Brief History
American Megatrends was founded in 1985, and it is a US-based hardware and software company. Although they are not directly at the forefront of the hardware manufacturing scene anymore because of a business-focused change of goals in the early 2000s.
American Megatrends focuses on firmware these days. Until 2005-06, they used to sell their motherboards as well. But, nowadays, they completely focus on software-related problems and challenges.
Why Do American Megatrends show up before the BIOS screen loads up?
American Megatrends excel in firmware production. That is, they create the backbones of the BIOS that you can use. Now, the BIOS might be the boring settings program with a flashy UI that is only used while setting up your PC. But, you can never run your PC without a BIOS. The BIOS is the “basic” operating system that connects your hardware to whatever Operating System you are using and vice-versa. Without it, your shiny new RTX 3090 is just a showpiece.
Right after the time, AMI shifted towards software, their existing dominance in the firmware market got another boost. They sell their basic BIOS to all of the leading motherboard manufacturers like MSI, Asus, ASRock, etc. These companies then add their UI and twist to make the BIOS you are familiar with. So, you can say that the different BIOSes that you see on boards of different brands are just custom-made skins of the same AMI firmware.
This strategic business plan has propelled the firmware market share of American Megatrends to over 40% in the DIY PC space, making it a market leader. Other companies in this space are Phoenix Technologies and Insyde Software, the latter of which manufacturers most of the firmware running on laptops.
As AMI moves into the future, they are entering other fields to improve the computing experience. The recent improvements made by the company in the security space is supposed to reduce BIOS hacks and implement firmware restore point to help users to come back to the last working position.
So, that is all about AMI. They have a huge role in modern-day computing. So much that they proudly declare, “Without AMI, you can’t compute.” And, that is 100% true. They are doing some great work, and I can’t wait for what they have in the bag for us.