Ryzen shine: New microprocessors help boost AMD revenues by 19 per cent to $1.22bn in second quarter

Successful launch of Ryzen 5 and 7 CPUs helps boost sales at AMD

AMD has reported revenues up by 19 per cent to $1.22bn in its second quarter financial results, a boost partly attributed to the successful launch of its Ryzen range of microprocessors.

Nevertheless, the company posted a slim loss of $16m for the three months to the end of June, although revenues should continue increasing as the company rolls out more Ryzen models, including the imminent Ryzen 3, Ryzen parts with integrated Vega graphics processing units, and Ryzen Pro CPUs intended for business.

Revenues may also have been boosted by discounted legacy AMD CPUs being slashed in price in order to clear stocks.

AMD's computing and graphics unit, which includes Ryzen chip sales, delivered second quarter revenues of $659m, an increase of 51 per cent, year-on-year, achieving a slim operating income of $7m.

This time last year, AMD reported $435m in revenues from the division and losses of $81m. "Our second quarter results demonstrate strong growth driven by leadership products and focused execution," said AMD chief executive Lisa Su.

"Our Ryzen desktop processors, Vega GPUs, and Epyc data centre products have received tremendous industry recognition. We are very pleased with our improved financial performance, including double digit revenue growth and year-over-year gross margin expansion on the strength of our new products."

On Tuesday's earnings call, Su also addressed the well-documented and ongoing shortage of graphics cards, which are being snapped up by cryptocurrency miners. She said that she doesn't see it as a long-term problem, noting that AMD will ramp up production to combat the shortage in the short term, with cards recently released designed specifically for mining.

AMD's enterprise, embedded and semi-custom unit, which includes royalties from console and server chips, saw revenue fall five per cent to $563m in the second quarter. This should increase in the near future, with Microsoft set to start shipping its Xbox One X console in November.

Looking forward, AMD expects that it will report 23 per cent sequential growth in revenue in the third quarter. "When we look at where we are, in the progression of the Ryzen rollout, we're still in the early innings," Su said.

This positive forecast isn't surprising. During the third quarter, AMD expects sales of its Ryzen microprocessors to continue increasing - especially with the imminent launch of the bargain basement Ryzen 3 - as well its Epyc server chips and recently-launched Vega graphics cards.