AMD Shines Through Intel’s Dark Cloud


与英特尔上周更为惨淡的财报相比，AMD的糟糕业绩仍算不错，未来AMD有很大上升空间。


AMD首席执行官苏姿丰今年早些时候在拉斯维加斯举行的一次活动中。

对于Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)来说，如今只要不像英特尔公司(Intel Corp., INTC)那样似乎就足够了。 6park.com
For Advanced Micro Devices, it seems enough these days to simply not be Intel.  6park.com
  
芯片制造商AMD的第四财季业绩充其量只算喜忧参半。整体收入56亿美元，略高于华尔街的预期，这要归功于该公司强劲的游戏业务，其中包括Xbox和PlayStation游戏主机的处理器。 6park.com
Fourth-quarter results for the chip maker better known as AMD were mixed at best. Overall revenue of $5.6 billion slightly beat Wall Street’s forecasts thanks to strength in the company’s videogame business, which includes processors for the Xbox and PlayStation consoles. 6park.com
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但AMD现在与游戏业务规模相当的数据中心业务的表现略低于分析师预期。该公司还预计第一财季的收入将同比下降约10%，这将是近四年来的首次下降。 6park.com
But AMD’s data-center segment, now equal in size to gaming, fell a bit short of analysts’ estimates. The company also projected a revenue drop of about 10% year over year for the first quarter, which would be its first decline in nearly four years.  6park.com
  
这样的消息通常不会受到投资者的欢迎。令人失望的展望曾导致AMD股价在过去两个财季财报发布后下跌，而去年10月份的财季中期收入预警令其股价在一天内下挫了近14%。但最新公布的财报却产生了相反的效果：AMD的股价在周三上涨了近13%。 6park.com
News like that isn’t typically well received by investors. Disappointing projections have taken AMD’s stock down following the last two quarterly reports, while a mid-quarter revenue warning in October sank the shares by nearly 14% in one day. But the latest results had the opposite effect: AMD’s stock price jumped nearly 13% on Wednesday. 



原因何在？与其老对手上周更为惨淡的财报相比，AMD的糟糕业绩仍算不错。英特尔第四财季的收入未能达到华尔街已经很悲观的预测，该公司预计第一财季的收入将史无前例地同比下降40%。 6park.com
Why? Battered results from AMD still compared favorably with even bleaker numbers from its archrival last week. Intel’s fourth-quarter revenue missed Wall Street’s already-downbeat forecasts, and the company projected a historic plunge of 40% year over year for the first quarter. 6park.com
  
这一下降大部分源自不景气的个人电脑市场，但英特尔主要的数据中心业务也表现不佳。该业务的收入同比下降了33%，营业利润率为9%，而上年同期的营业利润率达37%。AMD的数据中心收入飙升了42%，接近17亿美元，同期该部门的利润率仅下滑了5个百分点。 6park.com
Much of that is caused by the slumping PC market, but Intel is faring poorly in the key data-center business as well. Revenue there fell 33% year over year with operating margins hitting 9%, compared with 37% in the previous year’s fourth quarter. AMD’s data center revenue soared 42% to nearly $1.7 billion, while its margins for the segment saw a decline of only 5 percentage points over the same period.  6park.com
  
当然，英特尔还面临着比销售额下降更大的问题。这家芯片制造商正在进行一场代价高昂的竞赛，以使其制造技术重新赶上台湾积体电路制造股份有限公司(Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., TSM, 简称﹕台积电)，同时还在打造一项代工业务。而AMD没有面临这样的压力，它在几年前就决定退出制造领域，使用台积电的尖端工艺来生产更有竞争力的芯片。 6park.com
Intel, of course, has even bigger problems than falling sales. The chip maker is engaged in an expensive race to catch its manufacturing technology back up with that of Taiwan’s TSMC, while also building out a foundry business. AMD is under no such pressure, having decided years ago to get out of manufacturing and use TSMC’s cutting edge processes to field more competitive chips.  6park.com
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眼下，这些产品吸引了那些开出大额支票的客户。在上个月的一份报告中，Jefferies的分析师Mark Lipacis指出，AMD的米兰(Milan)数据中心处理器自2021年初推出以来，在所谓的云端实例中占比32%，该公司上款产品的这一比例为21%。 6park.com
Those offerings are now resonating with customers who write the biggest checks. In a report last month, analyst Mark Lipacis of Jefferies noted that AMD’s Milan data-center processor accounted for 32% of so-called cloud instances since its launch in early 2021, compared with 21% for the company’s previous offering. 6park.com
  
云端实例反映了亚马逊公司(Amazon.com Inc., AMZN)、微软(Microsoft Corp., MSFT)和Alphabet(GOOG)旗下谷歌(Google)等主要云服务提供商的使用情况。Lipacis还指出，AMD的处理器在去年11月份的“新CPU实例”中占65%，英特尔的产品占约30%。 6park.com
Cloud instances reflect usage at major cloud-service providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet‘s Google. Mr. Lipacis also noted that AMD’s processors accounted for 65% of “new CPU instances” for the month of November compared with about 30% for Intel’s offerings.  6park.com
  
不过，这并没能使AMD免受经济疲软的影响，以及上述科技巨头预算削减的冲击，这些巨头都在裁员并采取其他削减成本的措施。 6park.com
Still, that doesn’t leave AMD immune to the weakening economy, or to budget trims by the aforementioned tech titans that are all laying off workers and undertaking other efforts to cut their costs. 6park.com
  
Facebook母公司Meta Platforms (META)周三下午表示，将把今年的资本支出预算削减11%，理由是更新了数据中心建设支出下调的计划。AMD首席执行官苏姿丰(Lisa Su)在周二的电话会议上指出，一些云客户的库存水平升高，她说，这将导致2023年上半年的表现较为疲软。因此，分析师们下调了对AMD数据中心业务的预测，预计第一财季同比增长19%，而之前的预期是31%。 6park.com
Facebook parent Meta Platforms said Wednesday afternoon that it is cutting its planned capital expenditures this year by 11%, citing “updated plans for lower data center construction spend.” AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su noted “elevated levels of inventory with some cloud customers” in Tuesday’s call, which she said will lead to “a softer first half” of 2023. Analysts thus scaled back their data-center forecasts for AMD, projecting 19% growth year over year for the first quarter compared with 31% previously.  6park.com
  
相比之下，预计同期英特尔的数据中心收入将锐减40%。英特尔当下还在通过削减高管薪酬和员工工资来节省现金，用于其雄心勃勃的转型计划。AMD经历了过多的下降周期。这一次它有很大上升空间。 6park.com
By contrast, Intel’s data-center revenue is projected to plunge 40% for the same period. That company is also now resorting to cuts in executive compensation and employee pay to conserve cash to fund its ambitious turnaround plan. AMD has been through more than its share of downcycles. This one has some serious upside.