AMD delivers strong Q4, soft Q1 guidance weighs on shares

(Sharecast News) - Semiconductor firm AMD said late on Tuesday that it had delivered a strongerthanexpected set of fourthquarter results, although its outlook for the current quarter fell short of expectations amid continued heavy investment across the AI sector.

AMD posted adjusted earnings of $1.53 per share for the three months ended 31 December, ahead of the $1.32 expected, while revenues rose to $10.27bn, topping forecasts of $9.67bn. Net income jumped to $1.51bn, or $0.92 per share, compared with $482m, or $0.29 per share, a year earlier, and overall revenues grew 34% yearonyear.

For the first quarter, AMD guided for revenues of around $9.8bn, plus or minus $300m, versus consensus expectations of $9.38bn, but some analysts had anticipated a more upbeat outlook given the ongoing rampup in spending on chips used to train and run AI models.

Data centre sales climbed 39% to $5.4bn, driven by demand for both central processors and AI GPUs, while AMD's client and gaming division also performed strongly, with revenues up 37% to $3.9bn on the back of continued momentum for Ryzen processors in laptops and PCs, where AMD has been gaining share against Intel. Its embedded segment grew more modestly, rising 3% yearonyear to $950m.

AMD, one of only two major suppliers of highend AI graphics processors, has seen its shares more than double over the past year despite holding only a small share of a market still dominated by Nvidia.

As of 0945 GMT, AMD shares were down 8.10% in pre-market trading at $222.50 each.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com