AMD thrives on sales but still loses cash in Q2

AMD today posted mixed but largely positive results for the spring. The firm's pure revenue surged 40 percent over last year to reach $1.65 billion, setting a record for the company, but was balanced by a $43 million net loss. Operating income also flipped from a $67 million loss the year before to $128 million today.

The company credited much of the bounceback to the economic recovery, which gave customers more money to spend on computers, as the average price of an AMD chip was up year-over-year. It also noted a reversal of losses in the ATI group responsible for its Radeon graphics.

While far from the large profits that dictated Intel's results, AMD's performance in the quarter may have been helped critically by the launch of a new generation of AMD notebook chips ranging from the Athlon II Neo for near-netbooks to its first three- and four-core mobile processors. The chip producer also won back Sony as a customer for some notebooks and rolled out the first 12-core x86 processors for servers.

The company has a positive outlook on the summer and expects its revenue to increase yet again. Its future is hinging primarily on the development of Fusion processors, which would make graphics and the CPU part of the same design. Rumors have swirled but are far from confirmed that it may be striving for a deal with Apple to fill in gaps in Apple's lineup, including fast notebooks that could still use integrated NVIDIA graphics that Intel has banned for its newer chips.

By Electronista Staff