Today, AMD announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2024, with a striking revelation: nearly half of its sales now come from data center products. This shift signifies that AMD is advancing into the AI chip sector, moving beyond its previous reliance on personal computers, gaming consoles, and industrial and vehicle embedded chips.
This year, AMD's data center business has doubled, primarily driven by the AMD Instinct MI300 accelerator, which is competing with Nvidia's highly acclaimed H100AI chip. According to CEO Dr. Lisa Su, the MI300 achieved sales exceeding $1 billion in a single quarter, doubling the total sales since its launch in December of the previous year.
During the earnings call, AMD highlighted its 115% growth rate in data center sales, despite fierce competition, and plans to release new AI chips annually. The MI325X is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year, followed by the MI350 in 2025, and the MI400 in 2026. Dr. Su noted that the MI350 is highly competitive with Nvidia's "world's strongest chip," Blackwell, released in March. Although supply chain improvements have been made, she pointed out that "supply will remain tight until 2025."
While AMD's performance is quite impressive, it still lags significantly behind Nvidia: AMD's quarterly data center sales amounted to $2.8 billion, compared to Nvidia's staggering $22.6 billion. Nvidia's data center business also hit a historical high, demonstrating strong market demand.
For PC gamers and other users in need of new chips, the AI boom could bring new opportunities to the industry. Each new GPU architecture might benefit from the funding brought by AI, driving improvements in various products. However, at least until 2024, the AI craze seems to mean that gamers will not see the release of new GPUs. Nonetheless, AMD's personal computing CPU and GPU business grew this quarter. Ryzen CPUs increased by 49% year-over-year, and despite a 59% decline in gaming revenue due to falling PlayStation and Xbox sales, AMD's Radeon 6000 GPUs saw year-over-year growth.
Regarding AMD's Zen5 laptops, AMD stated that over 100 different platforms are in preparation, all set to feature its Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" chips. Although so far only Asus has launched a product, with an HP announcement and MSI teasing, Dr. Su confirmed that Acer and Lenovo will also release related products.
Key Points:
🌟 AMD's second quarter saw nearly half of sales from data center products, with the MI300 chip standing out!
🚀 AMD plans to release new AI chips annually, continuing to expand its market in the coming years!
💻 Despite a decline in gaming revenue, AMD's personal computing business remains on the rise!