Hold on there. AMD isn’t really a good alternative as far as proprietary blackbox chips go. Intel’ s decision to force IME down our throats was a stupid idea, but that doesn’t mean AMD is any better.
In fact, AMD has there own IME-like technology called AMD Platform Security Processor. According to this LibreBoot article:
The PSP is an ARM core with TrustZone technology, built onto the main CPU die. As such, it has the ability to hide its own program code, scratch RAM, and any data it may have taken and stored from the lesser-privileged x86 system RAM (kernel encryption keys, login data, browsing history, keystrokes, who knows!). To make matters worse, the PSP theoretically has access to the entire system memory space (AMD either will not or cannot deny this, and it would seem to be required to allow the DRM “features” to work as intended), which means that it has at minimum MMIO-based access to the network controllers and any other PCI/PCIe peripherals installed on the system.
It’s worth giving the entire section on AMD processors a good read (I only quoted part of it), because this is important.
So yeah, AMD’s CPUs, including their new Ryzen processors, are just as untrustworthy as Intel’s. PS: Did I mention that ARM processors also tend to have similar “features”? In other words, the tech industry is working hard to make sure big brother is always watching.