AMD released its financial report for the second quarter of 2024. The data center business has suddenly emerged and become the main driving force for performance growth. Nearly half of sales come from data center products, which marks AMD's successful strategic transformation and is no longer overly dependent on the personal computer and game console markets. The financial report shows that AMD's Instinct MI300 accelerator performed well, with sales exceeding US$1 billion in a single quarter, competing fiercely with Nvidia's H100. AMD is actively deploying in the field of AI chips and plans to continue to launch new generations of AI chips in the next few years to consolidate its position in the data center market.
Today, AMD announced its financial report for the second quarter of 2024. The eye-catching news is that nearly half of its sales now come from data center products. This shift marks AMD's move into the field of AI chips, beyond its previous reliance on personal computers, game consoles, and industrial and vehicle embedded chips.
AMD has doubled its data center business this year, driven largely by its AMD Instinct MI300 accelerator, which competes with Nvidia's high-profile H100AI chip. According to CEO Su Zifeng, MI300 sales exceeded $1 billion in one quarter, doubling total sales since its launch in December.
At the earnings conference, AMD emphasized its 115% growth rate in data center sales. Despite facing fierce competition, AMD also plans to launch new AI chips every year. The MI325X is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of this year, the MI350 will be launched in 2025, and the MI400 is scheduled to be released in 2026. Su Zifeng said that MI350 is highly competitive with Blackwell, the "world's most powerful chip" released by Nvidia in March this year. While supply chains have improved, she noted that "supplies will remain tight until 2025."
Although AMD's performance is quite impressive, there is still a significant gap compared with Nvidia: AMD's quarterly data center sales were US$2.8 billion, while Nvidia's was as high as US$22.6 billion. Nvidia's data center business also hit a record high, demonstrating strong market demand.
For PC gamers and others in need of new chips, the boom in AI could bring new opportunities to the entire industry. Each new GPU architecture is likely to benefit from the financial support brought by AI, thereby promoting the improvement of various products. However, at least in 2024, the AI boom seems to mean that gamers will not be able to welcome the release of new GPUs for the time being. Nonetheless, AMD's personal computing CPU and GPU businesses also grew during the quarter. Ryzen CPUs grew 49% year-on-year, while AMD's Radeon 6000 GPU achieved year-on-year growth despite declining PlayStation and Xbox sales leading to a 59% drop in gaming revenue.
As for AMD's Zen5 laptops, AMD says it has more than 100 different platforms in the pipeline that will be powered by its Ryzen AI300 "Strix Point" chips. Although only ASUS products have been launched so far, and an HP product has been announced, and MSI is also in the preview, Su Zifeng confirmed that Acer and Lenovo will also launch related products.
Highlights:
Nearly half of AMD's sales in the second quarter came from data center products, and the MI300 chip performed brilliantly!
Launching new AI chips every year, AMD plans to continue to expand the market in the coming years!
? AMD's personal computing business keeps growing despite declining gaming revenue!
All in all, AMD's second quarter financial report shows that the company has successfully transformed, its data center business has become a new growth point, and its future development potential is huge. Although there is still a gap with Nvidia, AMD is proactive, continues to innovate, and has demonstrated strong competitiveness in the field of AI chips. It is worth looking forward to its future performance.