AMD Adopting ‘More Conservative Outlook’ on PC Business: CEO

Despite the “additional softness” in the PC market in recent months, Advanced Micro Devices thinks it’s “very well positioned to navigate through the current environment,” said CEO Lisa Su on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q2 ended June 25. Q2 revenue in AMD’s client segment, which includes desktop and notebook PC processors and chipsets, was $2.2 billion, up 25% year over year, driven by a “richer mix” of Ryzen-branded mobile processor sales, said the company. But AMD is adopting “a more conservative outlook on the PC business” for calendar 2022, said Su. “A quarter ago, we would have thought that the PC business would be down ... high-single digits. Our current view of the PC business is that it will be down ... mid-teens, and that’s contemplated into our third-quarter guidance.” That would put the industry PC shipments "somewhere around" 290 million to 300 million units for the year, said Su. AMD "deliberately focused" its PC market attention on "the more premium segments," she said. "There are some parts of the PC market that are very price-sensitive, like the low end." AMD has "tried to reduce our exposure there going forward," she said. "I don’t think the dynamics change a lot. I think it’s always a very competitive market and the key thing there is to have a very strong road map."