AMD announced its earnings for the second quarter of 2024, and the most striking moment was this: almost half of the company's sales now come from data center products - not chips for personal computers, not game consoles, not embedded chips for industry or vehicles, The Verge reports, according to UNN.
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"The company's data center business has seen a doubling in results in a single year, and this quarter's growth was largely driven by a single chip: AMD's Instinct MI300 accelerator, which competes with Nvidia's infamous H100 AI chip," the publication writes.
According to CEO Lisa Su, sales of the AMD chip just surpassed $1 billion in a single quarter, which is higher than the previous milestone of $1 billion since its debut in December 2023. AMD says its Epyc server processors also contributed.
"AMD seems to be following the same path as Nvidia itself, which made such phenomenal profits on the Nvidia H100 that it will now release new AI chips every year, accelerating all its research and development to stay ahead by focusing its business on a product that is so popular that it doesn't stay on the shelves," the publication writes.
AMD, as indicated, also plans to release new AI chips every year: The MI325X will be released in the fourth quarter of this year, the MI350 in 2025, and the MI400 in 2026, the company reiterated in its earnings report. Lisa Su said that the MI350 should be "very competitive" with Nvidia's Blackwell, which it unveiled in March as the "world's most powerful chip" for AI and recently started providing samples to customers.
Regarding the MI300, Lisa Su indicated that there are still as many being sold as AMD can make. Despite improvements in the supply chain, "supplies will remain tight through 2025.
Nvidia has a huge advantage over AMD, and despite doubling this year, AMD's data center business is reportedly only a fraction of Nvidia's size - $2.8 billion for the quarter versus Nvidia's $22.6 billion for the quarter, which also just achieved record data center results.
"What does all this mean for PC gamers and others looking for new chips? It's possible that a rising tide lifts all boats - every new GPU architecture funded by AI dollars can be transferred to other tasks, providing faster improvements than before. But, at least in 2024, the enthusiasm for AI seems to mean no new GPUs for gamers," the publication says.
Nevertheless, AMD's production of personal computer CPUs and GPUs reportedly increased, not decreased, last quarter. Ryzen processors showed a 49% year-over-year increase and were up slightly quarter-over-quarter, and while PlayStation and Xbox sales were down 59%, AMD said its Radeon 6000 GPUs actually increased sales year-over-year.
At the same time, as indicated, AMD notes that there are more than 100 different "platforms" that are ready to ship with Ryzen AI 300 Strix Point chips.
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