Lisa
Su,
president
and
CEO
of
AMD,
talks
about
the
AMD
EPYC
processor
during
a
keynote
address
at
the
2019
CES
in
Las
Vegas,
Nevada,
U.S.,
January
9,
2019.
Steve
Marcus
|
Reuters
AMD
reported
fourth-quarter
earnings
Tuesday
that
were
in
line
with
analyst
expectations.
And
while
the
semiconductor
company’s
revenue
beat
estimates,
AMD
offered
a
first-quarter
forecast
that
fell
short
of
expectations.
AMD
stock
slid
more
than
6%
in
extended
trading,
even
after
the
company
gave
a
positive
update
on
how
quickly
its
new
AI
chips
are
selling.
Here’s
how
the
company
did
versus
consensus
estimates
from
LSEG,
formerly
Refinitiv,
for
the
quarter
ended
in
December:
-
EPS:
77
cents
per
share,
adjusted,
versus
77
cents
per
share
expected -
Revenue:
$6.17
billion,
versus
$6.12
billion
expected
For
the
first
quarter,
AMD
said
it
expects
about
$5.4
billion
in
sales,
plus
or
minus
$300
million,
while
analysts
were
looking
for
revenue
of
$5.73
billion.
AMD
added
that
it
expected
some
of
its
major
businesses,
including
PC
chips,
to
decline
sequentially
during
the
quarter.
It
said
its
data
center
revenue
would
be
flat
as
declines
in
server
central
processing
units,
or
CPUs,
are
offset
by
sales
of
graphics
processing
units,
or
GPUs,
which
are
needed
to
train
and
deploy
generative
artificial
intelligence
models.
“For
2024,
we
expect
the
demand
environment
to
remain
mixed,”
AMD
CEO
Lisa
Su
said
on
a
call
with
analysts.
Net
income
in
the
fourth
quarter
was
$667
million,
or
41
cents
per
share,
versus
$21
million,
or
1
cent
per
share,
a
year
ago.
While
the
GPU
market
is
currently
dominated
by
Nvidia,
AMD
has
said
that
its
new
AI
chips
introduced
last
year
will
challenge
Nvidia’s
H100
GPUs
for
some
applications.
Investors
are
looking
for
significant
growth
in
the
company’s
data
center
segment
over
the
next
few
years.
AMD
gave
a
bullish
update
on
its
AI
chips
sales.
In
October,
AMD
said
it
expected
$2
billion
in
server
GPU
sales
in
2024.
On
Tuesday,
it
said
it
now
expects
$3.5
billion
in
data
center
GPU
sales
under
its
“Instinct”
brand
this
year.
“In
cloud,
we
are
working
closely
with
Microsoft,
Oracle,
Meta
and
other
large
cloud
customers
on
Instinct
GPU
deployments
powering
both
their
internal
AI
workloads
and
external
offerings,”
Su
said.
AMD’s
data
center
business,
which
includes
server
CPUs
and
AI
chips,
rose
38%
on
an
annual
basis
to
$2.28
billion
in
sales.
It’s
now
firmly
AMD’s
largest
segment.
The
company
said
that
much
of
the
increase
in
revenue
was
attributable
to
“strong
growth”
in
sales
of
its
Instinct
graphics
processors,
which
are
used
for
AI.
However,
AMD’s
overall
performance
in
the
business
was
in
line
with
a
$2.29
billion
FactSet
estimate
for
the
Data
Center
business.
Historically,
AMD’s
main
business
has
been
CPUs
for
PCs
and
servers.
Compared
with
AI
chips,
that
part
of
the
semiconductor
industry
has
been
flat
or
shrinking
over
the
past
few
years,
as
PC
sales
have
suffered
post-pandemic.
AMD’s
client
segment,
mostly
chips
for
PCs
and
laptops,
rose
62%
year
over
year
to
$1.46
billion
in
sales,
thanks
to
recent
chip
launches.
Sales
in
AMD’s
gaming
segment,
which
includes
“semi-custom”
processors
for
Microsoft
Xbox
and
Sony
PlayStation
consoles,
fell
17%.
AMD
blamed
slower
console
sales
and
said
it
expected
semi-custom
revenue
to
decline
by
a
“significant”
double-digit
percentage
in
the
current
quarter.
AMD’s
embedded
segment,
which
includes
chips
for
networking,
reported
$1.1
billion
in
sales,
down
24%
on
an
annual
basis.
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