AMD has record $1.65B second quarter, still loses a little money

First, the good news: AMD pulled in $1.65 billion in revenue -- a record for the second quarter! Now, the bad news: the company still lost money. Just a (relatively) little bit, though, with a net loss of $43 million or $.06 per share. That's five percent more revenue than the first quarter of 2010, and a massive 40 percent boost over the second quarter of 2009, in which it lost $330 million net. What changed? Sales of graphics hardware in particular, up eight percent over last quarter and a huge 87 percent from last year, driven by success of the Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards. Likewise, sales of mobile processors were up 18 percent over last quarter. Net profitability? Keep this up, AMD, and it's not far off.

[QwaF Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:27AM]

They deserved their success for the 5000 cards, I hope it continues with their next planned refresh.

[Protato Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:32AM]

@QwaF
Their 4000 series is great as well. I have to 4850HD and it's great, yes it can run crysis :)

[Jimbob Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:52AM]

@QwaF

I've bought Intel CPU's the last few years but ATi graphics, The 4000 and 5000 series are great cards.

I'd bet a large amount of AMD's profits came in from it's ATi department.

[QwaF Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:56AM]

@Jimbob

Indeed, I still an Intel guy. I can't comment on the 4000 series since I was NVIDIA till this generation of cards for a good few years, but this generation i found myself extremely impressed with ATIs 5800 series specifically, as i was planning a build at pretty much the same few weeks of the 5850/5870 launch, I went with two 5850s, absolutely brilliant cards (managed to get them for £200 each (xfx) versus the current £250 each).

[Eastwood for Prez Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:04AM]

@QwaF
AMD's hexa core processor's have a lot of "bang fo yo bukk," or that's at least how my cheap asian hooker puts it

[QwaF Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:07AM]

@Eastwood for Prez

Yeah - AMD are doing great things with their CPUs too - I just think for my sort of usage, Intel's high end 1366 CPUs are what suit me best.

But yeah, AMD are certainly doing good with what they can, of course they don't have the budget and resources of Intel so progression maybe doesn't match theirs all the time, but they work to their strengths without doing the company any damage.

[Ignoramus Posted Jul 16th 2010 6:01PM]

@QwaF Go Intel/Nvidia!!! you got 'em!

[zepfloyd Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:36AM]

Meanwhile intel had just short of 3 BILLION in PROFIT.

[vstican Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:38AM]

@zepfloyd
hey you gotta start somewhere... lol

[Apple Legal Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:40AM]

@zepfloyd That's still kind of low for someone who has a monopoly on the whole processor market.

[ashwinkn Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:51AM]

@zepfloyd
Not that it really helped the shareholders like myself. The stock hasn't done anything in more than 10 years.

[JeremyBenthem Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:00AM]

@ashwinkn
engineers > shareholders
and intel has some of the best in the world

[archkron Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:36AM]

@JeremyBenthem

So does AMD ;) Just wait and see...

[fourthletter Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:00AM]

@zepfloyd

And cancelled their ridiculous Larabee graphics card project.
Once GPU compute really take off on Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, Intel might get left behind very quickly.

[fourthletter Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:00AM]

@JeremyBenthem

You do realise AMD was founded by Intel engineers don't you ?

[dingus Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:33AM]

@fourthletter No, AMD was founded by ex-Fairchild engineers, just like Intel was.

[dingus Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:44AM]

@JeremyBenthem Intel's development strategy is to hire redundant teams of (admittedly bright) engineers to throw shit at a wall and see what sticks. This is why we had P4, Larrabee, and GMA500. AMD doesn't have that luxury and either has to execute on a single product in a line or fall on their faces.

[xNamelessNeko Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:59AM]

@Apple Legal Yea, 3 Billion ain't nuffin'.

[SirNoDroin Posted Jul 16th 2010 11:11AM]

@zepfloyd

AMD also has a habit of selling defective products as "Budget" product lines. Might have something to do with why Intel does better.

[archkron Posted Jul 16th 2010 11:58AM]

@SirNoDroin

No, that's called being intelligent. Maximises yields and revenue.

[dingus Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:23PM]

@archkron Funny how most people don't get silicon production testing and assume that factory fusing features is just the man keeping them down.

[DrGoods Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:57PM]

@Apple Legal
oligopoly yes, monopoly no. Intel has little to no footprint in the mobile phone processor market and AMD is still a strong competitor for the more budget minded consumer. If they were monopoly, they would have full price control and, as you sort of touched on, they would have much higher profit margins.

[cdf74dc9 Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:37AM]

They regain in the graphic card segment and kudos for that. Now where are those x4 mobile CPU laptop? Yea, they needed alot of work there. Intel is shelling i7 left and right and no AMD in the scene.

[Scrubs Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:49AM]

@cdf74dc9 where's intells 6 core processor? Amd has a first there. Plus a post awhile back said and is going to be in 80 brand named laptops. You can say they're catching up.

[ashwinkn Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:52AM]

@cdf74dc9
When they get around to releasing Fusion, Intel is going to have to be afraid, maybe get around to working on their gpu performance.

[RobQuads Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:03AM]

@Scrubs Core i7 980X - 6 core for desktop and a couple Xeons already ship with 6 cores, one of which we had come in at work the other day and runs quite nicely.

[DNAbio Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:23AM]

@cdf74dc9 I just wish I used any software that used the multiple cores I have now.

[xNamelessNeko Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:57AM]

@Scrubs The 1055T loses to the ol' 955 in some benchmarks.

[Brother Unit No 4 Posted Jul 16th 2010 2:01PM]

@cdf74dc9

They're out there along with mobile triple cores. Saw some at Walmart. It's just that no tech news organization seems to wants to review AMDs refreshed mainstream platform

Trusted Reviews has something IIRC.

[Eliasj Posted Jul 16th 2010 2:33PM]

@xNamelessNeko

Yep, this is it also beats out some of the higher end I7s in some, even the 965. For a processor that costs $199, that is fucking good.

[njsrikar Posted Jul 16th 2010 8:47AM]

finally ...some good news.

[PuttyKitties Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:12AM]

Keep bombarding the market with RELIABLE, faster and better cards, you'll be up and flying in heavens in no time. Let's hope nVidia put some pressure on ATI, no competition = no innovation.

[rstoplabe14 Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:19AM]

I always thought AMD processors were just a fill for a void in the CPU market, to keep intel away from being a monopoly. Their ATi line of GFX cards are a very good competitor to nVidia though.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:36AM]

@rstoplabe14
years back amd cpus spanked the ever living shit out of intels core duo line (not core 2 duo but core duo)

[rstoplabe14 Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:38AM]

@DefPoet And now intel got their shit together and are making the processors that they should be making.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:23AM]

@rstoplabe14
yupp solely because of what amd did
to bad amd has not done the same type of thing lately
if they had we wold have sandy bridge already :(

[KC Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:21AM]

Just imagine where AMD would be without ATi. I have always wished that buy out had gone the other way with ATi taking over control of AMD since ATi is the only truly great part of AMD, and these days the only part keeping them afloat.

[dicobalt Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:24AM]

Now if only their CPU division would quit dragging ass. Bulldozer better be damned good.

[Coach George Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:34AM]

I find it amazing that a company can sustain it's self constantly losing money! I would think the BOD,shareholders and wall street would go nuts
I suspect the loss is strictly on paper for accounting reasons.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:37AM]

@Coach George
most companies area over 10 billion in debt you now
well the large ones anyway

[Blackflag486 Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:43AM]

AMD rox my sox

[Hatecrime69 Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:43AM]

Go amd! ditching that old loser ceo was just what was needed to put you in the right direction, and ati kicking butt with the 5000 series (that i'm a proud owner of). Their cpu division needs to figure out what's holding them back on performance, but i guess they would be worse off if they didn't buy ati, even if i wasn't a total fan of the idea myself

[archkron Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:50AM]

@Hatecrime69

Ditching Hector was one of the best things that happened to the company. Seriously.

We're working feverishly on two new uarches for CPUs. I can tell you that one of the things holding us back (for mobile) was the fact our processors have for a long time started in the server market. Intel have always been much better at re-engineering parts to work on lower power.

Intel have also been a step ahead of us in terms of manufacturing processes (ie a smaller node). We're better now we span off our fabbing to GF - since they produce silicon for more than just AMD/ATI they have more money to invest to keep up with the latest developments.

We've hired a bunch of experienced low-power guys to deliver Bobcat, and we're pretty much starting from scratch from Bulldozer. And they're both good at what they do.

[lerxst Posted Jul 16th 2010 9:50AM]

It looks like the acquisition of ATI turned out to be a smart move in the end. Yes; I'm an AMD fanboy (lol).

[Shanebenn Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:19AM]

Hexacore and HD5850 in my new computer built a week ago. Just doing my little part for the little guy. (In the CPU game anyway)

[d3sc3nd3ncy Posted Jul 16th 2010 10:46AM]

I don't know how much AMD is clearing on the 5000 series cards, but most of the profit for the 58XX cards are going to retailers who have jacked up the price because NVidia is charging so much for their card and people are willing to pay almost as much for an ATi/AMD card.

So that might explain why they still lost money in spite of the huge success that is the 58XX series.

[Smurf Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:13PM]

It is lucky for both AMD and Intel that AMD snatched ATi up. If AMD didn't buy ATi, AMD would be in a world of hurt and Intel would be much closer to being broken up as a monopoly.

Also, thanks for the insight archkron! The idea of spinning off fab to Global Foundries in order to produce more silicon from AMD, ATi, and other companies to bring in more money for working on future nodes never occurred to me.

[guigsy Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:28PM]

I love AMD, as long as they keep giving Intel the aul 1...2 consumers will win on price, value and future tech now! I also love crossfire 4x!!!

[LANjackal Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:30PM]

Factoid: Cumulatively over its entire existence, AMD has actually *lost* money. As much as I admire their scrappy attitude and technology, how they manage to stay in existence/why investors still buy their stock is a mystery to me.

[trihy Posted Jul 16th 2010 12:39PM]

Amd is lagging on notebook processors, improve that shi**y line, you are like 4 years behind competition.