Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD) saw its shares reach an all-time high price today. The chipmaker had reported its stellar earnings for Q2 2021. AMD has made its mark in the industry courtesy of the use of leading-edge semiconductor technologies powering its products.
Analysts had predicted the company to post $0.54 in earnings per share (EPS), but it surpassed this by posting an EPS of $0.63 earlier this week. This was a hike of nearly 17%. AMD is now worth $125 Billion. AMD’s data center sales proved to be the standout feature of their second-quarter earnings. AMD, famous for its Ryzen and Radeon processors, also produces EPYC processors for companies employing large-scale data servers.
Analyzing the Growth
The company’s data center sales went a long way in helping propel its revenue from the Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom segment by 183% year-over-year. This is huge. This is the segment that deals with sales of EPYC processors. It also includes the hardware needed for gaming consoles from Microsoft Corporation and Sony Corporation. AMD revealed in its earnings presentation that it saw a “5th straight quarter of record server processor revenue, including demand for 2nd and 3rd Gen EPYC processors.”
AMD’s chips are manufactured by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). It currently offers processors and graphics processing units (GPUs) that are manufactured on the 7nm process node. There are also plans to upgrade these to TSMC’s 5nm process node. But global supply chain constraints due to the coronavirus pandemic have hit the plans.
The competition
AMD recently revealed an important product roadmap. Its only competitor in the x86 microprocessor market is Intel. Intel is currently ramping up production of its 7nm node that is believed to be superior to TSMC’s process. Intel also revealed that its Intel 7 process is ready for volume production. We can expect the first line-up of products to arrive as early as the fourth quarter, this year.
AMD is manufacturing its 3rd-generation EPYC chips with TSMC’s 7nm process. Intel’s processors are claimed to feature almost 11% more transistors as compared to TSMC-made chips for a similar node. Intel uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light for production processes way more than TSMC. This allows Intel to reduce feature sizes at a larger scale while improving density. Even though Intel is a behemoth in front of AMD, the competition is always on!
