Thursday, February 2nd 2023
AMD Restrained CPU and GPU Sales in 2H-2022 to Avoid Unsold Inventory
AMD in its Q4-2022 earnings release call disclosed to investors that it "undershipped" chips in the second half of 2022 to keep prices (margins) high and save itself from unsold inventory, in the wake of a steep slump in the PC market. "We undershipped in Q3, we undershipped in Q4," AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su told investors. "We will undership, to a lesser extent, in Q1 [sic]," she added.
Major chipmakers are experiencing an unprecedented slump in demand compared to the spike in demand during the COVID 19 pandemic lockdowns. With high energy prices and the ebb in the pandemic causing much of the white-collar workforce to return to office, there's no longer the kind of demand the PC industry saw in 2021. On the other hand, undersupplies artificially hold prices high, with graphics cards and desktop processors still being unreasonably pricey compared to previous generations. AMD calculated that it would rather make less revenues on fewer chips shipped, than end up with a bloated unsold inventory that it would have to sell at a thin margins, or even at a loss. The company on Tuesday beat expectations to report good Q4-2022 results, which received a thumbs-up from investors.
Source:
TechSpot
Major chipmakers are experiencing an unprecedented slump in demand compared to the spike in demand during the COVID 19 pandemic lockdowns. With high energy prices and the ebb in the pandemic causing much of the white-collar workforce to return to office, there's no longer the kind of demand the PC industry saw in 2021. On the other hand, undersupplies artificially hold prices high, with graphics cards and desktop processors still being unreasonably pricey compared to previous generations. AMD calculated that it would rather make less revenues on fewer chips shipped, than end up with a bloated unsold inventory that it would have to sell at a thin margins, or even at a loss. The company on Tuesday beat expectations to report good Q4-2022 results, which received a thumbs-up from investors.
200 Comments on AMD Restrained CPU and GPU Sales in 2H-2022 to Avoid Unsold Inventory
Granted, it can allways come together with massive lay off...
"Client segment revenue was $903 million, down 51% year-over-year due to reduced processor shipments resulting from a weak PC market and a significant inventory correction across the PC supply chain."
"Data Center segment revenue was $1.7 billion, up 42% year-over-year primarily driven by strong sales of EPYC server processors."
Is AMD now rather focussing on a data center / server segment, so much so that the chiplets are primarily designed for that use and can't really be optimally utilised in home PC?
Also, did AMD replace shipments of client CPUs on which they have lower margins with server CPUs with much larger margins? That would make more sense than fear of overstocking.
tell strategie to intel
illegal
Edit: Also, die manufacturing takes about 3 months. It's a great strategic advantage if you can decide where to put a die only after you have that die in your hand.
In any case, be it Nvidia, Intel or AMD, they can only restrict supply to some point. When supply far outstrips demand, unless they can stop the fab from producing, they will have an inventory problem at some point. This is a delay tactic that cannot last. You can choose not to produce any cards, but the chips are still getting manufactured because they are paid for in advance. So it is really kicking the can down the road kind of solution.
So, when cheap times arrive they just "undership" to maintain prices high.
I guess supply and demand is being manipulated?
She meant undershipping of the chips that are in demand, that they haven't been able to produce enough of to meet demand. Most likely EPYC chips for the datacenter, Rembrandt for the mobile markets/mini pc's, SOCs for the consoles and probably the SOC for the Steam Deck.
They're not holding back inventory to drive prices up, although you're forgiven for thinking so since that is what the article (mistakenly) implies.
That said, I think there's still room for complaints. The midrange and low-end cards are limited to x8 or even x4 PCIe lanes which is horrible for upgrading PCIe 3.0 platforms, every GPU under $200 feels like a scam, and low-profile cards barely exist and are all horrible.
Intel Arc is probably helping a little bit in the midrange, but because of its resizeable bar requirement it still doesn't work well on a lot of older PCIe 3.0 systems.
I am not talking about TPU, but in general the press was quiet in Nvidia's case. That period the press and Youtubers where more focused on promoting Nvidia cards by informing us that the RTX 3090 Ti had seen a price drop and we should buy it.
And on the contrary to Nvidia, AMD DID DROPPED PRICES those last quarters. So, even with limited inventory, AMD DID tried to make it's cards more affordable.
But consumers decided to rush and buy the RTX 4090 and the RTX 3050, even OVER THEIR ORIGINAL MSRPs. In RTX 3050's case, EVEN WHEN THERE WHERE BETTER AND CHEAPER OPTIONS IN THE MARKET.
So, why supply consumers with cards, when they are not going to buy them, because they love Nvidia and they are willing to pay whatever price Nvidia asks?
Good move from AMD. Let consumers buy a new jacket for poor Jensen.
Also there's no winning no matter what they do. Take Tesla for ex. In order to ramp to the moon they cut prices so spur demand. PPL whined about losing equity in their used cars, lol. There's no winning either way.
Admitted to holding back shipments to keep prices as high as possible and some think this is a good thing
Once acceptance is complete we'll never see prices drop :cool:
AMD is pissing off a lot of people. Their GPUS were overpriced unobtanium for over a year, and now that prices are decreasing they are trying to rig the market in their favor. There's a good reason they are down to 8% marketshare. If they'd been cranking out GPUs during that time they'd have made a mint, many thought they couldnt due to CPU demand but now I'm wondering if it was intentional to justify higher pricing, which they couldnt implement because they just cant catch nvidia in performance.
It's a dangerous game to play. If intel ever gets back on their feet and becomes competitive again in the server space AMD wont have a strong consumer base to fall back on anymore. Of course thats beyond next quarter, so who cares? Better idea: stop overhiring useless DEI departments in the first place, then you wont need to cut them (as they have received the brunt of layoffs in tech) the moment the market slows down. Then you make MORE money when in the good years too!
Because dont worry, a good chance to cut the fat will be used, regardless of profits. Corporations dont care about their employees.