AMD: Crypto accounted for less than $50m of our growth in Q4 2017

Posted on Wednesday, January 31 2018 @ 10:20 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
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During yesterday's fourth-quarter earnings call, Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis asked a question about how big of a contribution the cryptocurrency mining demand was during the quarter. AMD CEO Lisa Su downplayed it and mentioned that the overall Computing and Graphics segment grew about $140 million sequentially. She estimates about a third of this uptick in sales was driven by blockchain demand. So basically, less than $50 million worth of extra sales in Q4 2017 versus the previous quarter.
Dr. Lisa Su
Yeah absolutely Mark. So, look on the Computing and Graphic segment, we grew about $140 million sequentially. And if I look at that growth, it was across Ryzen and Radeon. If you look at block chain in particular, our estimates are that it was about a third of the growth, a third of the $140 million. And then the rest of the two thirds are around the GPUs, the other segments of GPUs and Ryzen.

When I look going forward, clearly, block chain is a little bit of a fluid and dynamic market. We did see some strength as we went into December. We see strength as we're going into the first quarter. I'm sure many of you have seen that the graphics channel is very low, and we're certainly working to replenish that channel environment. So, we think that graphics in general is going to be strong into the first half and that's some of what's contributing to our strong Q1 guidance. But overall, my comments are we're seeing nice momentum across Ryzen and all of the GPU segments which is important for us as we go into 2018 here.
Su says demand from the crypto market is hard to estimate, but she doesn't believe it's significantly higher than a mid-single digit percentage of AMD's annual revenue. During the conference call, she really wanted to bring over the point that AMD's growth story is not about crypto.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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