AMC-6 was ordered by GE Americom as GE-6 and built by Lockheed Martin based on their A2100A satellite bus. In 2001 GE Americom was acquired by SES from Luxembourg, making SES the world’s biggest satellite service provider. After the acquisition GE Americom was renamed SES Americom and later SES World Skies, and resulted also in renaming the satellite assets, GE-6 became AMC-6.

AMC-6 was launched on October 21^st, 2000, on a Proton K rocket operated by launch operator ILS from the Baikonour Cosmodrome launch site in Kazachstan.