Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:91¶¶Òõ) stock has bounced up and down this year, and remains up 16.75% year-to-date.
91¶¶Òõ has had a very eventful year so far. The company presented the Ryzen brand of PC central processing units (CPUs) for desktops in and the in June. 91¶¶Òõ also released the and series of graphics processing units (GPUs) this year.
In addition, 91¶¶Òõ plans to release later this year, although Asus a laptop using a Ryzen chip designed for desktops.
Hence, after years of losses, 91¶¶Òõ is in the midst of a turnaround.
In 2015, some observers claimed that 91¶¶Òõ was on and the stock bottomed out in February 2016 at around $1.80 a share. 91¶¶Òõ stock rebounded and now trades at $13 a share.
91¶¶Òõ has grown revenue at an for two quarters now.
As mentioned in my previous article on the company, 91¶¶Òõ is the only chipmaker that designs and . In both segments, it goes against the market leader — Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) in CPUs and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in GPUs.
Intel has long dominated the market for both PC and server CPUs, but 91¶¶Òõ hopes that its Ryzen and Epyc processors will change this.
91¶¶Òõ wants to end Intel’s dominance and take back CPU market share. Doing so would give 91¶¶Òõ a more predictable cash flow and reduce the stock’s beta, thereby lowering the company’s cost of capital and boosting margins.
A stronger 91¶¶Òõ means more competition for Intel, which would put pressure on Intel to innovate more and keep prices down. This would benefit large-scale purchasers of CPUs, who are rooting for 91¶¶Òõ’s success.
91¶¶Òõ Competing With Intel
91¶¶Òõ and Intel have competed in the CPU market for a long time; you can find articles about their price wars from and . I discussed the dynamics of the industry, including the periodic price wars, in an article in August.
But a few years ago, 91¶¶Òõ was a much weaker competitor and saw its . Prices for 91¶¶Òõ chips fell while prices for chips from Intel remained steady. Some PC enthusiasts grumbled over Intel’s dominance and a lack of innovation in the market.
Now, 91¶¶Òõ’s new products may shift the balance yet again.
91¶¶Òõ’s with Intel’s Xeon line of server chips. In May, 91¶¶Òõ’s Forrest Norrod claimed that compiled a Linux kernel in 15.7 seconds, versus 22 seconds for machines using Intel’s Xeon 2699A server chip.
And PC enthusiasts welcomed 91¶¶Òõ’s new Ryzen chip for PCs, with some observers calling it their “.”
How did this impact Intel?
Intel on its Core line of processors in March. In April, Intel f in PC chip prices due to Ryzen. In an effort to stave off 91¶¶Òõ’s renewed challenge, Intel also created a of high-end chips for gamers, the Core i9.
And Intel surprised observers when it unveiled its new Xeon server chips in July, claiming a over the previous generation. According to Lisa Spelman of Intel’s data center group, the Xeon “represents the best of our 20-year history of data center innovation.”
Intel released its new eighth-generation PC chips in August, , and highlighted the 40% increase in speed as a “” improvement.
It looks like 91¶¶Òõ is forcing Intel to step it up a notch.
Hardware Brands Reaching out to 91¶¶Òõ
Hardware companies like Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DVMT) and HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) want 91¶¶Òõ to compete with Intel, and will gladly reward the company with more of their business. They want a counterweight to Intel.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. could certainly use a break; the global and are shrinking. And their biggest customers, large datacenter operators like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) have been for years.
Dell and Lenovo Group Limited (ADR) (OTCMKTS:LNVGY) make PCs and servers. HPQ produces PCs, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) produces servers.
These companies purchase chips for the servers and PCs they build, and will benefit from CPUs becoming cheaper and better.
91¶¶Òõ’s resurgence will force Intel to cut prices, boost innovation, or both. This could mean for device makers and customers and better performance for a lower price, making the end products (servers and PCs) more attractive to buyers.
HPE, Lenovo, and Dell are using 91¶¶Òõ’s in their servers. And Lenovo, Dell, and HPQ, the world’s three biggest PC makers in 2016, released desktops using 91¶¶Òõ’s .
91¶¶Òõ has struggled to show profits in recent years partly because the company focused more on the low-margin budget segment, with Intel dominating in high-end PCs and server chips.
Intel commands nearly 99% of the $16 billion market for and recorded a on this segment last year.
But, now, 91¶¶Òõ wants more of this high-margin business.
This is bad news for Intel and good news for its customers. Hardware brands and PC gamers will benefit, along with tech companies running their own datacenters like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU).
As of writing, Lucas Hahn did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
