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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AMD Joins Chipmakers Struggling to Impress Traders With Upbeat Earnings
You'd have a chip on your shoulder, too. Santa Clara-based chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices reported a record $7.7 billion in second-quarter revenue after the bell Tuesday, a 32% year-over-year increase that bested analysts' expectations. The company also projected third-quarter sales of $8.7 billion, topping Wall Street estimates of $8.3 billion. Earnings of 48 cents per share narrowly bested the 47-cent estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. Yet the stock fell 5% in after-hours trading in what's becoming a rite of chipmaker reporting days, when good is seen as not good enough. READ ALSO: Apple Adds $100 Billion to American Investment Plans and Disney Growth Shows Americans Willing to Splurge Despite Gloomy Economic Signals Promise and Doubt AMD entered Tuesday saddled with the expectations of a top draft pick (best of luck, Cam Ward). Analysts forecasted second-quarter revenue of $7.4 billion, or a 27% year-over-year increase, according to estimates compiled by S&P Global's Visible Alpha. That would have matched the company's first-quarter revenue, which represented a 36% increase as chipmakers have benefited from AI and tech giants like OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft announcing hundreds of billions in spending that will include increasing computing power. The real hype around AMD has been its share price: Up 45% in 2025, the chipmaker's stock is the sector's top performer. Yep, that's better than even Nvidia, the $4.3 trillion advanced semiconductor maker that is the world's most valuable company; it has gained a comparatively puny 33% so far this year. But, according to John Peddie Research, mighty Nvidia captured a 92% share of the market for add-in board graphics processing units in the first quarter, up from 88% a year earlier. AMD, by comparison, lost market share, falling to 8% in the first quarter from 12% a year earlier. Lynx Equity Strategies cautioned in a note before Tuesday's earnings that investors may be too optimistic about the role AMD's MI350/MI355 and upcoming MI400X GPUs will play in massive chip upscaling at Meta and possibly Amazon Web Services (AWS). 'We doubt if AMD has bagged share at AWS,' wrote Lynx's KC Rajkumar, and 'without AWS, AMD may be dependent on one key backer — Meta.' There's still plenty of upside in the sector; it's just unclear that AMD will capture it: The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index is up 10.6% this year, slightly better than the Nasdaq's 8.3% advance. Optimism has been fueled in recent weeks by some $340 billion in capital spending plans for this year laid out by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, with much of that expected to include chip-buying. But Lynx's KC Rajkumar warned that 'investors are yet to see tangible signs of MI350/MI355 adoption at hyperscale data centers this year.' Falling profits due to more stringent curbs on chip exports and trade uncertainty also hang over earnings. Not Good Enough: It's not just AMD. Investors have generally been hard to please for most chipmakers. Shares in UK chipmaker Arm have fallen roughly 15% since last Wednesday, even as it offered a third-quarter forecast in line with analysts' estimates. Shares in Qualcomm, which beat analysts' sales and profit estimates and offered a rosy forecast when it reported a day later, have since fallen 8%, with investors more worried about its exposure to the cyclical smartphone market and the forthcoming loss of Apple as its biggest modem customer. This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive delivering razor sharp analysis and perspective on all things finance, economics, and markets, subscribe to our free The Daily Upside newsletter. 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤
Los Angeles Times
01-08-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Intel used to be the most valuable U.S. chipmaker. How it fell far behind Nvidia
Earlier this year, Intel's new chief executive Lip-Bu Tan made frank remarks about how the Silicon Valley chipmaker keeps coming up short. 'For quite a long time for Intel, we fell behind on innovation. As a result, we have been too slow to adapt and to meet your needs,' Tan told Intel's customers and partners at a company event in late March. 'You deserve better, and we need to improve, and we will.' Intel, a Santa Clara-based tech behemoth that fueled the rise of personal computers, sits at a major crossroads in the company's 57-year-old history as the competition to dominate artificial intelligence escalates. Known for making the 'brains' that power computers, Intel used to be the most valuable U.S. chipmaker before Nvidia claimed the top spot. It's also facing more competition from rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices and Samsung. The AI frenzy has greatly benefited Nvidia, a company that created a specialized computer chip that's proven valuable not only for gaming but also for AI model training, data centers and robotics. While Nvidia's worth ballooned to more than $4 trillion, Intel has seen its market value drop to around $87 billion. 'It's going to be tough for them,' said Mario Morales, group vice president for enabling technologies and semiconductors at the International Data Corporation. 'They missed a very big shift and they don't yet have the products in AI to compete — and that market is growing fast.' In the last five years, Intel's stock price has plunged more than 58%. It posted a net loss of $18.8 billion in 2024 and plans to slash roughly 25,000 workers this year. Intel's lengthy history has been filled with highs and lows, but a series of big missed opportunities, manufacturing delays and management missteps hampered the growth of a company long synonymous with Silicon Valley's rise, analysts say. Tan, a 65-year-old tech leader who became Intel's chief executive in March, is trying to steer the company in the right direction. Intel has bet big on its foundry business, taking on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes chips for other companies such as Apple and Nvidia. Reining in costs, Intel has scrapped manufacturing projects in Germany and Poland while slowing construction of its Ohio factories. 'There are no more blank checks. Every investment must make economic sense,' Tan told employees in a memo last week. Founded in 1968, Intel focused heavily on researching and developing new technologies in its early days. Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, already well-known tech figures, left their jobs at Fairchild Semiconductor to launch what would become Intel. Noyce co-invented the integrated circuit, laying the foundation for the development of laptops, smartphones and other modern electronics. Moore was known for making an observation that became a guiding principle for the semiconductor industry. The company grew rapidly in its early years. Intel's first engineers worked from a conference room in Mountain View, Calif., before the company moved to its own facility in Santa Clara. The company released memory chips before creating the world's first commercially available microprocessor and other innovations that made it possible for companies to build more affordable computers. As computer sales from Dell, Microsoft and other tech companies rose, Intel saw its market value reach a record $495 billion in 2000 during the dot-com boom, according to Reuters. But the company also made a series of missteps that would haunt it later, analysts said. Intel declined to comment. 'It's been on a weak footing for so long because of those historical poor decisions,' said Jacob Bourne, a technology analyst at eMarketer. 'Now it's at this point where it has to cut all these costs to try and become profitable.' One of Intel's biggest missed opportunities: supplying chips for the first iPhone in 2007. Former Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini told The Atlantic in 2013 that Apple was interested in paying a certain price for a chip but it was below what Intel forecasted. That prediction turned out to be wrong and Otellini expressed regret for not following his gut. 'We ended up not winning it — or passing on it, depending on how you want to view it. And the world would have been a lot different if we'd done it,' Otellini said in that interview. But strategic missteps weren't Intel's only problems. The company experienced process technology delays, opening the door for its rivals such as AMD that offered powerful and efficient chips to capture customers. Pat Gelsinger, who served as Intel's chief technology officer before returning to lead the chipmaker in 2021, focused on an ambitious and costly turnaround plan for the company. He set a goal in which Intel would develop five new semiconductor process nodes within four years. The federal government awarded Intel billions of dollars last year to support its semiconductor manufacturing expansion in the United States but the company's net losses were also widening. In 2024, Intel's foundry business reported an operating loss of $13.4 billion, nearly double compared with the previous year's loss, according to its annual report. 'Gelsinger threw fuel on the fire, because he started spending money like crazy to build out this massive amount of manufacturing capacity for business that they did not have,' said Stacy Rasgon, a senior analyst at Bernstein covering U.S. Semiconductors. Then the board reportedly forced out Gelsinger, who announced his retirement last year before Tan took over as chief executive. Intel's new chief executive has been focused on cutting costs including around the company's foundry business. He told employees in a note last week the company invested too much money without enough demand. And Intel said it might pause or discontinue its upcoming chip manufacturing process technology known as 14A if it can't land a 'significant' customer. While Intel has been eclipsed by some of its rivals, the company is still a big player in the semiconductor industry. IDC, which analyzed semiconductor revenue, said in 2024 Intel ranked third behind Nvidia and Samsung. It dropped to the fourth spot behind SK Hynix, a South Korean company that supplies memory chips, during the first quarter of this year. Analysts don't see Intel going away anytime soon. And as tech companies work on rolling out new AI-powered hardware, that could also present another opportunity for Intel. Alvin Nguyen, a senior analyst at Forrester, said some of the concerns around Intel being in trouble might be 'overstated.' 'They may not be at the top like they once were, but they are still, ultimately, very important for all industries because their chips are used virtually everywhere,' he said.
Los Angeles Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Nvidia is the first $4-trillion company. Here are three things to know
SAN FRANCISCO — Nvidia is already the world's most valuable company being one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global artificial intelligence boom. This week, the Santa Clara-based chip maker got another windfall. The Jensen Huang-led technology giant on Monday received approval from the U.S. government to sell some of its AI chips in China, boosting Nvidia's stock price by 4% to $170.70 a share on Tuesday. Rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has received similar assurances from the government. Nvidia's valuation has risen dramatically over the last two years since generative artificial intelligence became a mainstream topic. Last week, the 32-year-old company became the first publicly traded firm to reach $4 trillion in market capitalization, beating tech titans including Microsoft and Apple. Though it's a largely symbolic moment, the milestone raised the stakes for competition in the AI space, which has attracted enormous amounts of capital from established tech players and start-up investors. 'Once you reach that level of market cap, everybody and their brother wants to be you,' said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with advisory services firm Enderle Group. 'So that means that there's going to be a huge focus on creating competitive technologies to Nvidia because it looks incredibly lucrative.' Nvidia has become a primary force in the growth of AI technology, as many applications are built with Nvidia's chips. Prior to the AI boom, Nvidia was mostly known for creating premium graphics cards that were attractive to gamers in rendering high-speed visuals. Most recently, the company is known for selling powerful chips that help chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and self-driving cars process information quickly enough to make the technology useful. Nvidia said in its 2025 annual report that it powers more than 75% of the supercomputers on the TOP500 list, which ranks the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world. Founded in 1993, Nvidia has ridden many technology waves, including the crypto frenzy. But lately, Nvidia has seen tremendous growth thanks to worldwide investor interest — and competition for dominance — in artificial intelligence. Companies are eager to explore how AI can make processes more efficient and figure out complex problems. But getting the computing power behind AI can be expensive if companies are building hardware on their own. That's where Nvidia comes in. Nvidia's sales increased 69% to $44.1 billion in its fiscal first quarter compared to a year ago. Net income was nearly $18.8 billion, up 26% from a year ago. In its fiscal year 2025, the company's revenue more than doubled to about $130.5 billion compared to a year earlier, and net income increased 145% to nearly $72.9 billion compared to fiscal year 2024. In the last 12 months, Nvidia's shares have increased more than 30%. Since five years ago, the stock has risen more than 16-fold. 'It is clear AI is going to change the world and people want to get on that train, and Nvidia is the easiest entry point,' wrote Berna Barshay, a partner at online investment platform Wall Street Beats, in an email. Over time, new winners and formidable rivals may emerge, Barshay said. 'But during this foundational period of infrastructure creation, Nvidia has certainly been king.' Other companies were slower to innovate in AI, including Apple and Intel, and underestimated how quickly AI technology would advance, analysts said. Huang, a former microprocessor designer, discussed the idea behind Nvidia inside a Denny's in San Jose with fellow entrepreneurs Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. The company's name is partly based on the Latin word 'invidia' — which means envy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many businesses are certainly jealous of Nvidia's success now, but in the 1990s, the company almost went out of business when its first chip, NV1, failed, according to media reports. Huang has said in public comments, including commencement speeches, that adversity can help people become better leaders. Born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1963, the onetime Denny's dishwasher has become one of the industry's most recognizable names, on par with Apple chief Tim Cook and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. Thousands of people watch Huang's keynote at Nvidia's developer conference, as his vision could provide a road map for companies eager to expand investments in AI. Some analysts regularly refer to him as the 'godfather of AI.' The biggest challenges facing Nvidia are trade wars and competition, analysts say. Tariffs in the semiconductor industry could hurt companies like Nvidia, which manufacture and sell countless chips abroad. The company said in its annual report that 53% of its revenue in its 2025 fiscal year came from outside the U.S. The company said that worldwide geopolitical tensions and conflicts in countries like China, Hong Kong, Israel, Korea and Taiwan, where the manufacturing of its product components and final assembly are concentrated, could disrupt its operations, product demand and profitability. Nvidia has worked with its production partners to increase U.S. manufacturing of its chips. Several years ago, the U.S. restricted Nvidia's sales of its chips in China due to concerns that its AI technology could be used to help the Chinese military. Huang has said that since the U.S. government could choose to apply restrictions, he didn't think policymakers needed to be concerned about that and warned that allowing Nvidia to lose market share in China would cede a major advantage to Chinese tech company Huawei, according to Bloomberg. While many analysts say Nvidia has a significant lead on competitors, it is possible over time they could catch up. OpenAI, which uses Nvidia products for ChatGPT, is developing its own chip design, according to Reuters. There's also the question of whether the power grid is robust enough to support the infrastructure needs of the fast-growing technology, which could slow down not just Nvidia but the larger AI ecosystem. Despite the challenges, Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at is bullish on Nvidia, saying it is possible that the company could reach $5 trillion in market cap during the next 18 months. 'The world's still catching up and the thing is, it's going to take years for them to catch up,' he said. 'As long as we're looking at the AI revolution as a multidecade transformation, it's going to be really hard to take Nvidia out of that position.'
San Francisco Chronicle
12-07-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Nvidia's stock price is soaring. Could Silicon Valley home prices follow?
Silicon Valley is riding the AI-driven tech boom, with Santa Clara-based Nvidia now the world's most valuable public company. But the wealth of its workers and investors, which has helped make the region one of the hottest housing markets in the Bay Area, no longer appears to be translating to home sales as smoothly as it once did. The Silicon Valley housing market is closely linked to the booms and busts of its tech industry, real estate agents told the Chronicle. So far this year, due in large part to the Trump administration, the industry has experienced a whirlwind of changes. That's put many would-be homebuyers on guard, resulting in a market where homes still sell quickly, but where competition isn't as fierce as before. On the home price-boosting side of the ledger, Silicon Valley giants like Nvidia and Meta have seen soaring stock prices, making their workers and investors flush with wealth they can use to buy a $1.7 million home in cash. Plus the Trump administration's support of cryptocurrency has sent the value of Bitcoin to record highs, adding to investors' wealth. Take Nvidia for example. The company, which is now valued at more than $4 trillion, had a closing stock price Thursday of about $164 per share, enormously more than the $10.50 price on July 10, 2020. Someone who invested $100,000 in the company five years ago would have more than $1.5 million now. And with many Nvidia employees receiving stock as part of their compensation, the company has likely single-handedly created a new stock of Bay Area millionaires, leading to a more competitive field of homebuyers. That growth has helped make the home values in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties the highest among large counties in the U.S. And while mortgage rates are still high, keeping many potential buyers out of the market, the buyers still in the market are facing less competition for homes, said Nikki Edwards, a Realtor with Silicon Valley-based EQ1 Real Estate. 'For those who are able and willing to buy, it's a good opportunity — one of the best opportunities we've seen since the winter of 2023,' she said. But it's not all good news for tech workers and investors. Some companies' stocks have only recently recovered after crashing in April, when President Donald Trump announced a wave of tariffs, and for most that are growing, they haven't seen close to Nvidia's level of success. Layoffs have been another concern, with Santa Clara tech company Intel announcing this week it was cutting nearly 600 Northern California jobs. Several tech giants have been downscaling since mid-2022, with Microsoft and Google conducting another round of layoffs buyouts this year. 'All the (tech) employees felt quite invulnerable and quite confident … that they were very safe (pre-2022), so they could take big swings,' said John Young, a Menlo Park-based Realtor with Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty. 'Now, it's less so the case.' Mortgage rates are also still high, forcing homebuyers who aren't at the top of the income range to decide whether a South Bay home is worth a five-figure monthly payment. The result is a 'mixed bag,' said Will Klopp, managing director of Compass' Silicon Valley office. Home value growth in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties has sputtered in recent months, according to data from real estate brokerage Zillow, a trend mirrored in much of the rest of the country. 'It's kind of a split market,' Klopp said. 'Some homes are selling quickly with multiple offers, while others linger and require price reductions.' Political uncertainty could also have a chilling effect on the Silicon Valley housing market, said Sandy Jamison, a real estate broker with Tuscana Properties in Campbell. She pointed to the Trump administration's immigration policies, noting that many of the region's residents are on work visas. With the future unclear, some workers on visas are hesitant to buy or sell a home without knowing whether they'll be able to remain in the country. '(There's) a lot of change happening at the macro level right now that is putting a lot of people in (a state of) fear,' Jamison said. 'And what do people do when they have fear? They just freeze up and do nothing.'
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Planned Nvidia expansion in Israel prompts multiple offers of sites
Nvidia has received a high number of offers of potential sites to help it carry out a plan to greatly expand its operations in Israel to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence data centres, two sources told Santa Clara-based Nvidia, which has become the most valuable company in history at $4 trillion, earlier this week issued a request for information, or RFI, to buy land to build a new campus near its facility in northern Israel that industry sources estimated would cost billions of dollars and create thousands of a leading designer of high-end AI chips , entered Israel in 2020 after buying Mellanox Technologies for nearly $7 billion. It is located in Yokne'am, where many tech companies are based, near the northern port city of in Israel declined to comment beyond its RFI.A third source, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press, said the company received "dozens and dozens and dozens" of offers from municipalities and others, not all near has set a July 23 deadline for offers to build its campus of up to 180,000 square its part, the Haifa municipality said it was "currently busy preparing an attractive offer for the company. We think we are the city with the best potential for them."A race among Microsoft,, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, and Tesla, to build AI data centres and dominate the emerging technology has led to a surge in demand for Nvidia's high-end of the sources said Israel's expertise was "extremely important to the AI era" and Nvidia needed to expand company has already nearly tripled in size in Israel since its acquisition of Mellanox, which a source said contributed to $13 billion in revenue to Nvidia last year. The company has not confirmed the has also made a number of other acquisitions over recent years in the country where it has 5,000 has also built Israel's most powerful AI supercomputer that was a blueprint for Elon Musk's Colossus Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, said the new Nvidia campus will be massive and could house "a few thousand employees"."Nvidia sees its operation in Israel as something which is going to stay here for a very long time and to expand here," he told Reuters. "This declaration is a sign of confidence in Israel."Nvidia's planned expansion in Israel comes as rival Intel - in Israel since 1974, and one of the country's largest employers at 9,350 - has begun to trim its workforce globally. Israel media said a few hundred workers in Israel are being made redundant.A local spokesperson would not comment on numbers, only pointing to Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan's comments in April that the company was "taking steps to become a leaner, faster and more efficient company".
