Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) Chief Executive Lisa Su said Wednesday that strategies aimed at the data center and embedded systems markets should help the chipmaker weather more weakness to come from the PC sector this year.
Speaking on a conference call to discuss AMD’s (AMD) fourth-quarter results and outlook, Su said there were “lots of puts and takes” involving the company’s data center business, which is AMD’s (AMD) largest source of revenue. During the fourth-quarter of 2022, data center sales rose 42% from the prior-year period, to $1.7B, with sales of Epyc server processors leading those results.
“We expect overall demand to remain mixed,” Su said, with business likely to pick up as the year progresses.
Su said that on the whole, AMD (AMD) is “in a good position to gain share” in the embedded data center market, even with what she said were expected to be “elevated levels of inventory” in the first half of the year that should improve after summer and toward the end of 2023.
“Our largest growth driver is the data center,” Su said. “We’re positive on what we can do [in the data center] and will watch the macro [economic environment] on client and gaming.”
For AMD (AMD), its client segment includes PC sales, which in the fourth quarter fell 51% from a year ago, to $903M. The company’s gaming segment sales of $1.6B were down by 7% from the fourth quarter of 2022.
Overall, AMD (AMD) reported a fourth-quarter profit of 69 cents as a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $5.6B in sales. The company also forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue in a range of $5B to $5.6B.