AMD’s Lisa Su addresses AI demand and guidance concerns
Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su defended the company’s stance poor guessHe told CNBC on Wednesday that the chip maker has seen an increase in demand in the last two to three months.
Shares lost 13% on Wednesday.
“What I will tell you from an insider is that AI is accelerating at a rate I couldn’t have imagined,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” adding that demand continues to exceed computing needs.
Su said AMD’s data center business accelerated from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, and demand for central processing units was “breaking records” as businesses rapidly increased the amount of computing for AI enterprise work.
The company reported fourth-quarter results on Tuesday that beat Wall Street expectations but were overshadowed by what some analysts viewed as a weak outlook.
AMD said it expects revenue of $9.8 billion (plus/minus $300 million) in the first quarter. Expectations were $9.38 billion.
Some analysts expected a much stronger outlook from the company, driven by increased artificial intelligence spending and massive data center construction.
AMD had a high bar to break through this quarter after a wave of big deals in the fourth quarter, including partnerships with OpenAI and Oracle in the fourth quarter. As the need for data centers to support artificial intelligence tools continues to grow rapidly, companies are increasing investments.
Su told CNBC that the second half will see a “turning point” as AMD begins rolling out its new integrated server-scale AI system, known as Helios, and that the company remains on track for launch.
