By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 4 (Radarr Africa) – Chipmaker AMD reported third-quarter revenue of about $13.38 billion on Tuesday, ahead of analysts’ expectations, and forecast fourth-quarter revenue of around $17 billion as demand for its data-centre products continued to climb.
Revenue of $13.377 billion was up 45 per cent from a year earlier and compared with an expected $13.09 billion, according to a TradingKey analysis of the results. Adjusted earnings per share were $2.09, against a consensus of about $1.95, it said. A separate 24/7 Wall St. live blog gave the revenue estimate as $13.08 billion and the earnings estimate as $1.94 or $1.95.
Data-centre revenue was a record $8.546 billion, up 97 per cent and ahead of the roughly $8.2 billion expected, TradingKey reported. The segment now accounts for more than 60 per cent of total sales. The 24/7 Wall St. blog said the figure was nearly double the previous year, as the Instinct MI450 chip began to ramp.
Outside the data centre, the picture was weaker. Client and gaming revenue fell 8 per cent to $3.722 billion, TradingKey said, with client sales up 7 per cent to $2.949 billion and gaming down 40 per cent to $773 million. Embedded revenue rose 29 per cent to $1.109 billion. Adjusted operating income was $3.923 billion, up 75 per cent, it reported.
For the fourth quarter, AMD guided to revenue of about $17 billion, plus or minus 3 per cent. TradingKey said that implied growth of about 66 per cent on the year and 27 per cent on the quarter, against analysts’ expectations of about $16.23 billion. It put the expected adjusted gross margin at about 55 per cent.
The analysis said management expected 2027 revenue growth of more than 80 per cent, compared with about 77 per cent anticipated by analysts, with about 80 per cent of sales coming from data-centre chips.
The company flagged risks. Tight supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) remained a constraint on expanding AI chip capacity, and management expected a double-digit decline in PC shipments next year, TradingKey reported.
Chief executive Lisa Su described the Helios rack ramp this way, according to the 24/7 Wall St. blog: “Q3 is the very beginning of the ramp.” Investors had been watching whether lower-margin Helios racks would dilute gross margin, as well as gaming weakness and operating expense growth, the blog said.
AMD shares closed up 3.65 per cent at $483.90 in regular trading on November 3 after an intraday high of $497.40, TradingKey reported. They rose about 5 per cent to around $508 in after-hours trading, though a TradingKey headline cited a gain of more than 5 per cent and another summary cited 7 per cent, so the size of the move varies by source.
The 24/7 Wall St. blog said the stock had fallen roughly 23 per cent over the previous month and was trading below its 50-day average of $548.78. Investopedia, via Yahoo Finance, said AMD had lost nearly 20 per cent over the previous three sessions and had more than doubled this year.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that AMD’s strong results and forecast had helped ease concerns about the AI trade in Asia, which had been unsettled by Intel’s weak outlook the previous week. The relief was short-lived, as Asian shares reversed earlier gains on US midterm election results.
Investopedia said options pricing had implied a move of about 7 per cent in either direction after the results. It said AMD management would appear at conferences on December 1 and December 9.
