AMD's channel business avoids Q2 carnage

Sales fall 35 per cent and losses widen but the channel is still buying AMD's chips

AMD's channel business emerged as one bright spot in an otherwise miserable set of Q2 results which showed losses widening and overall sales tanking.

The chip maker hinted at further job cuts as quarterly sales limped in at $942m (£603m), down eight per cent sequentially and 35 per cent annually, and GAAP net losses widened to $181m.

It blamed the performance on the fact large OEM customers are buying fewer of its accelerated processing units (APUs), which combine its CPUs and graphics accelerators (GPUs) on a single chip, amid weak consumer demand.

AMD's Computing and Graphics segment was fingered as the main culprit as revenues there tumbled 29 per cent sequentially and 54 per cent year on year.

However, AMD's channel business saw "strong sequential growth", chief executive Lisa Su revealed.

On the channel side, AMD said it saw a sequential increase in desktop processor revenue due to "solid demand" for its FX processors and A-Series APUs, Su said on the earnings call, a transcript of which can be viewed here.

AMD said its channel coffers were also boosted by the launch of its 300 Series GPUs and Radeon R9 Fury X.

"Strong sequential revenue growth in our EESC segment and channel business was not enough to offset near-term challenges in our PC processor business due to lower-than-expected consumer demand that impacted sales to OEMs," Lu said in the results statement.

On the call, Su said she believed the second quarter will be AMD's "revenue trough" for the year, "based on stronger second-half demand for game consoles, combined with the ramp of our newest APU and GPU products, and OEM demand improving as the market transitions to Windows 10".

However, the PC market remains "volatile" and further cost-cutting may be needed, she added.

"We must further align our cost structure with our revenue profile, as we focus on our strongest market opportunities and continue investing in the high-performance Computing and Graphics technologies that can enable us to create great products and re-establish AMD as a leader across our target markets," she said.