AMD releases Q1 2020 financial results

AMD released its Q1 2020 financial results last night, and with it came the news that the firm is on track to launch the Zen 3 microarchitecture and RDNA graphics architecture later this year.

As predicted by analysts, AMD posted record Q1 revenue raking in just under $1.8 billion. That's a 40 percent year-over-year increase albeit with a 16 percent decline compared to Q4 2019. Not too shabby at all given Q4 is usually the strongest for any firm of this kind. 

Alongside such revenue, AMD also reported an operating income of $177 million and net income of $162 million. That's compared to an operating income of $38 million last year and $348 million in the previous quarter. 

Much of this has been attributed to higher Computing and Graphics segment revenue with a greater percentage of Ryzen and EPYC processor sales than before. The Computing and Graphics segment revenue alone garnered $1.44 billion, up 73 percent year-over-year, and only down 13 percent compared to the previous quarter. 

In comparison, Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue was down 21 percent year-over-year to $348 million, but it's clearly been offset by higher EPYC processor sales. 

During the announcement, AMD CEO Lisa Su explained that the company has gained more share in the desktop PC market for the 10th quarter in a row, clearly keen to catch up on Intel eventually. 

Remaining just a teensy bit cautious given recent global events, she did also point out that weakness in China was down to closed retail shops but pointed out that 'PC demand in the rest of the world was strong' which led to 'offsetting the softness in China'. 

Unlike many rivals, AMD was willing to predict Q2 revenues suggesting expectations of $1.85 billion with a 21 percent year-over-year increase that it's hoping to be driven by Ryzen and EPYC sales. It's an ambitious move simply making any predictions right now, so it'll be interesting to see if it comes to fruition.

During the post-earnings call, AMD explained that it's 'on track' to launch Zen 3 and RDNA in late 2020 although it didn't go into detail about those plans. There are plenty of rumours about Vermeer Ryzen desktop processors and Cezanne Ryzen mobile chips based on Zen 3 but no official confirmation on what will launch first. 

When it comes to RDNA 2, we do know that the semi-custom SoCs will be powering the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, both of which should be launching in November 2020. 

For now, keep an eye on what comes later. It seems likely that there may be some discrete GPUs in the works too.