News AMD posts highest quarter result ever — Strong CPU sales, but GPUs and gaming trail behind

[Admin]

AMD delivered record-breaking Q1 2025 results driven by strong sales of premium client CPUs, server processors, and AI accelerators, but warned that newly imposed U.S. export restrictions could reduce annual revenue by up to $1.5 billion.

AMD posts highest quarter result ever — Strong CPU sales, but GPUs and gaming trail behind : Read more

 

[-Fran-]

Wait. Wait a second. Where are the layoffs? Aren't successful Companies meant to fire their employees when they are doing well?

Regards.

 

[TerryLaze]

Wait. Wait a second. Where are the layoffs? Aren't successful Companies meant to fire their employees when they are doing well?

Regards.

You first need to have employees to then fire them.
And yeah, with their operating expenses being 39% of revenue, and their net income being less than 10% ,they wish they could fire people to keep a bit more of that pie.

 

[Zaranthos]

GPU sales lag behind because you can't get them. Months now with almost nothing but scalper pricing and news articles about new models being released. MSRP and actual prices are so far apart it's hard to justify buying a new GPU. This will all be a lot easier when a factory can be run mostly by AI with robots that can all go idle when demand is low and almost instantly ramp up production when demand goes up. Maybe AI can replace some of the over paid CEO's as well.

 

[KyaraM]

GPU sales lag behind because you can't get them. Months now with almost nothing but scalper pricing and news articles about new models being released. MSRP and actual prices are so far apart it's hard to justify buying a new GPU. This will all be a lot easier when a factory can be run mostly by AI with robots that can all go idle when demand is low and almost instantly ramp up production when demand goes up. Maybe AI can replace some of the over paid CEO's as well.

In the US, maybe. In Europe, all cards, be it Nvidia or AMD, are available, and most Nvidia cards even below MSRP. AMD are currently all over MSRP, but they are available. Oh, and even with sales tax, they are cheaper than in the US. I wonder why that might be^^

 

[TerryLaze]

This will all be a lot easier when a factory can be run mostly by AI with robots that can all go idle when demand is low and almost instantly ramp up production when demand goes up. Maybe AI can replace some of the over paid CEO's as well.

Ain't nobody gonna build a hugely expensive FAB to have it sit idle, if your money press ain't pressin you ain't making money, and if you ain't making money you are losing money.

The best we can hope for is that amd and nvidia will start using intel in addition to tsmc so that they can make more product building up to releases, if people can be sure that there will be enough cards for everybody then scalping has no chance.

 

[bit_user]

This will all be a lot easier when a factory can be run mostly by AI with robots that can all go idle when demand is low and almost instantly ramp up production when demand goes up.

It's not the workers that are the bottleneck, except I guess when building a new fab and doing the initial workforce hiring and training. Once a fab is up and running, I think they run 24/7.

The bottleneck is lithography machines. First, ASML produces them rather slowly, because they're incredibly exacting, like scientific instruments, and take a long time to install and setup, for the same reasons. Second, they're so expensive that you only buy as many as you think you can keep busy.

 

[-Fran-]

You first need to have employees to then fire them.
And yeah, with their operating expenses being 39% of revenue, and their net income being less than 10% ,they wish they could fire people to keep a bit more of that pie.

Around 38K employees, if my GoogleFu is to be trusted. So, yeah, they could fire some if they wanted to... I don't know why they would, but they could. Hence the rethoric question.

I guess most companies wait until XMas time, so they get them a nice XMas send off.

Regards.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

In the US, maybe. In Europe, all cards, be it Nvidia or AMD, are available, and most Nvidia cards even below MSRP. AMD are currently all over MSRP, but they are available. Oh, and even with sales tax, they are cheaper than in the US. I wonder why that might be^^

In Australia the supply is similar, about half the models are available in a given class and half sold out. 5070 Ti is massively dearer than 9070XT, $150US becomes $400-500AU

 

[lmcnabney]

AMD isn't making that many GPUs because they want to make more money.

They have only contracted for so many wafers with TSMC. For every wafer they turn into 9070s that is one less wafer of 9800X3Ds. The die size of a 9800X3D is 70.6mm while the 9070 is 357 and it requires expensive RAM. They are probably making at least 5x as much per wafer making CPUs than GPUs.

 

[thestryker]

Wait. Wait a second. Where are the layoffs? Aren't successful Companies meant to fire their employees when they are doing well?

They're in that bubble where their operations are lean enough they aren't culling, but their outlook also isn't good right now either. I'm sure if AI/graphics was looking good you'd get that classic, stupid, corporate "we're optimizing..." cover for layoffs.

 

[bit_user]

AMD isn't making that many GPUs because they want to make more money.

They have only contracted for so many wafers with TSMC.

How do you know N4P is supply-constrained? If so, how long is the backlog?

For every wafer they turn into 9070s that is one less wafer of 9800X3Ds. The die size of a 9800X3D is 70.6mm while the 9070 is 357 and it requires expensive RAM.

You're forgetting about the I/O die, which adds cost, and the fact that you can buy a Ryzen 9700X, with both of those chiplets, for $280. If they were so constrained on supply of N4 wafers, don't you think they'd cut back on the supply of 9700X CPUs? Not to mention 9600X, which I'm sure they're shipping in far greater numbers than the rate of chips that don't have 8 good cores (which, let's not forget, could also go into 9900X's).

Basically, I'd need to see some actual evidence, not just a theory.

 

[thestryker]

How do you know N4P is supply-constrained? If so, how long is the backlog?

I think it's fair to say there's capacity limitations as TSMC has been running full utilization on N5 since last year. The AZ fab having customers immediately also reinforces that there are some limitations.

That being said I don't think this has anything to do with the CPU/GPU wafer allocation. I'd believe that AMD wouldn't do an additional wafer buy just for GPUs, but I think the allocation strategy was based on 7000 series sales rather than anything else. Given how long graphics generations are now there's plenty of time for them to increase production without fast tracking wafers for GPUs.

 

[TerryLaze]

How do you know N4P is supply-constrained? If so, how long is the backlog?


You're forgetting about the I/O die, which adds cost, and the fact that you can buy a Ryzen 9700X, with both of those chiplets, for $280. If they were so constrained on supply of N4 wafers, don't you think they'd cut back on the supply of 9700X CPUs? Not to mention 9600X, which I'm sure they're shipping in far greater numbers than the rate of chips that don't have 8 good cores (which, let's not forget, could also go into 9900X's).

Basically, I'd need to see some actual evidence, not just a theory.

The post wasn't about the supply being constrained.
It was about maximizing profits with whatever supply they do have.

Also, how many months beforehand do you have to secure your wafers at tsmc? Look at how much money amd did during that time, there's your constraint at.

 

[bit_user]

The post wasn't about the supply being constrained.
It was about maximizing profits with whatever supply they do have.

You don't make more total profits by diverting wafers. So, the only reason to do that would be if they're supply-constrained.

 

[lmcnabney]

How do you know N4P is supply-constrained? If so, how long is the backlog?


You're forgetting about the I/O die, which adds cost, and the fact that you can buy a Ryzen 9700X, with both of those chiplets, for $280. If they were so constrained on supply of N4 wafers, don't you think they'd cut back on the supply of 9700X CPUs? Not to mention 9600X, which I'm sure they're shipping in far greater numbers than the rate of chips that don't have 8 good cores (which, let's not forget, could also go into 9900X's).

Basically, I'd need to see some actual evidence, not just a theory.

Everything beyond 5nm is booked solid and has been for a couple years. Thanks AI.

I didn't include any of the cheapo parts like the package, IO, off-silicon cache, cooling, pin/ball grid... There is so much more margin in CPUs than midrange consumer GPUs. Commercial GPUs/AI units do have fat margins. AMD sells their CPUs directly to the retailer. For GPUs they sell the chips to their AIB partners and they are the ones making bank on the GPU shortage right now.