Latest news with #AMD
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Qualcomm vs. AMD: Which Chipmaker Offers Stronger Growth in 2025?
Qualcomm Technologies Inc. QCOM and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD are premier chip manufacturing firms competing in the mobile, PC and data center markets, with a focus on AI (artificial intelligence) and advanced chip technologies. Qualcomm's offering includes high-performance, low-power chip designs for mobile devices, PCs, XR (Extended Reality), automotive, wearable, robotics, connectivity and AI use cases. The company boasts a comprehensive intellectual property portfolio comprising 3G, 4G, 5G and other Micro has strengthened its position in the semiconductor market, thanks to its evolution from a purebred consumer-PC chip provider to an enterprise-focused company. Its processors are primarily powered by the company's proprietary "Zen" CPU and "Vega" GPU architectures. The company's acquisition of Xilinx has helped in expanding into multiple embedded markets. AMD now offers Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Adaptive SoCs and Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform (ACAP) products. With growing AI proliferation in PCs, smartphones, automotive and IoT applications, both Qualcomm and Advanced Micro are steadily advancing their semiconductor portfolio to bolster their competitive edge. Let us analyze in depth the competitive strengths and weaknesses of the companies to understand who is in a better position to maximize gains from the emerging market trends. Qualcomm is well-positioned to meet its long-term revenue targets driven by solid 5G traction, greater visibility and a diversified revenue stream. The company is increasingly focusing on the seamless transition from a wireless communications firm for the mobile industry to a connected processor company for the intelligent edge. The recent introduction of Qualcomm X85 5G Modem-RF, powered by Qualcomm's 5G AI Processor, has taken the market by storm by delivering one of the fastest, battery efficient and consistent 5G connectivity to Android users. The company is strengthening its foothold in the mobile chipsets market with innovative product launches. It had extended its Snapdragon G Series portfolio with the addition of next-generation gaming chipsets, Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 and Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 chips. Qualcomm is also placing strong emphasis on developing advanced chipsets for the emerging market of AI PCs. The strategy is aimed at moving beyond the slowing smartphone industry, which is its primary breadwinner. The Snapdragon X chip for mid-range AI desktops and laptops is the fourth such product in the Snapdragon X processor line, following the successful launch of the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core, Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite efforts to ramp up its AI initiatives, Qualcomm has been facing tough competition from Intel Corporation INTC in the AI PC market. Shift in the share among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) at the premium tier has reduced Qualcomm's near-term opportunity to sell integrated chipsets from the Snapdragon platform. The company is also facing stiff competition from Samsung's Exynos processors in the premium smartphone market, while MediaTek is gaining market share in the mid-range and budget smartphone market. Competition is also likely to come from formidable rivals like Broadcom and NVIDIA Corporation NVDA. Qualcomm's extensive operations in China are further likely to be significantly affected by the U.S.-China trade hostilities. AMD is strengthening its footprint in the AI market through an expanding portfolio. The latest MI300 series accelerator family boosts its competitive position in the generative AI space. The accelerator is based on AMD CDNA 3 accelerator architecture and supports up to 192 GB of HBM3 memory, enabling efficient running of large language model training (up to 80 billion parameters) and inference for generative AI workloads. It is also benefiting from strong enterprise adoption and expanded cloud addition, strength in 7-nanometer-based processors is expected to strengthen the company's competitive position in the commercial and server market against Intel. AMD is currently leveraging Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's 7 nm process technology, which is enabling it to deliver its advanced 7 nm chips faster to market. AMD Radeon RX 7900 series chiplet design combines 5 nm and 6 nm process nodes, each optimized for specific chips in the in the traditional computing market, which still generates a chunk of its revenues, AMD is up against Intel's strong market position. With Intel systems so well entrenched, there is an obvious preference for system integrators to choose Intel processors over AMD. Moreover, AMD faces significant competition from NVIDIA in the GPU market. AMD has had relatively greater success in the mobile segment, and its current product lineup indicates that this focus will continue. However, competition in the mobile segment is likely to accelerate, with more ARM-based devices coming on the market. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Qualcomm's 2025 sales and EPS implies year-over-year growth of 11.8% and 14.6%, respectively. The EPS estimates have been trending southward on average over the past 60 days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Advanced Micro's 2025 sales suggests year-over-year growth of 23.1%, while that for EPS implies a rise of 18.4%. The EPS estimates have been trending southward over the past 60 days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Over the past year, Qualcomm has declined 27.7% against the industry's growth of 12.5%. Advanced Micro has lost 21.5% over the same period. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Qualcomm looks more attractive than Advanced Micro from a valuation standpoint. Going by the price/earnings ratio, Qualcomm's shares currently trade at 12.95 forward earnings, significantly lower than 26.72 for Advanced Micro. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Qualcomm and Advanced Micro carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) each. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks companies expect their sales and profits to improve in 2025. Advanced Micro has shown steady revenue and EPS growth for years, while Qualcomm has been facing a bumpy road. With a better price performance and healthy long-term earnings growth expectations of 24.5%, Advanced Micro is relatively better placed than Qualcomm (long-term earnings growth expectations of 8.2%), although the former is a bit expensive in terms of valuation. Consequently, Advanced Micro seems to be a better investment option at the moment. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Digital Trends
2 hours ago
- Business
- Digital Trends
This AMD-powered MSI gaming PC with RTX 4060 is 10% off today
You're going to want to take advantage of any discount that you encounter when shopping for gaming PC deals, as these machines can get pretty expensive. Here's an offer from Amazon to consider: the MSI Aegis Z2 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card at $143 off, which brings its price down from $1,400 to $1,257. That's a pretty nice bargain for a gaming desktop of this caliber, but you're going to have to hurry with your purchase if you want to make sure that you get it at 10% off. The offer may be gone as soon as tomorrow! Why you should buy the MSI Aegis Z2 gaming PC The MSI Aegis Z2 lobs a decent challenge against the best gaming desktops, with performance that will let you play the best PC games without any issues. In addition to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, it's powered by the AMD Ryzen R7-7700 processor and 16GB of RAM, which our guide on how much RAM do you need says is the best place to start for gaming PCs. Once you've got the MSI Aegis Z2 gaming PC up and running with your gaming monitor and all the other necessary accessories, you can start installing video games right away because it ships with Windows 11 Home pre-loaded. You'll have plenty of space for your gaming library on its 1TB SSD. The gaming desktop also comes with a solid cooling system, which will allow you to keep playing for hours without worrying about any overheating issues. The MSI Aegis Z2 gaming PC with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card actually already provides great value at its sticker price of $1,400, so this 10% discount from Amazon is a huge bonus if you're planning to buy the machine. It's down to $1,257 for savings of $143, but we're not sure for how much longer. If you don't want to miss out on this deal, we highly recommend proceeding with your transaction for it right away, as the MSI Aegis Z2 gaming PC may return to its regular price sooner than you think.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AMD Just Landed a New Microsoft Partnership. Should You Buy AMD Stock Here?
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) recently announced a high-profile partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) to collaboratively create silicon for a wide range of devices, including the next Xbox console. As the gaming hardware sector slowed down in recent quarters, this news represents a strategic wager that there will be strong demand down the road for new gaming solutions and customized AI-specific workloads. AMD shares are now higher by more than 9% over the previous five trading days. Beyond gaming, the AI chip space remains a large tailwind. Despite import controls and a cautious macroeconomic picture, AMD continues to gain traction in hyperscale data center, client, and custom silicon partnerships. The partnership with Microsoft reestablishes AMD's relevance in a more fragmented chip market and adds a fresh catalyst to a name that has lagged behind other AI stocks. Dear Tesla Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendars for June 30 3 ETFs with Dividend Yields of 12% or Higher for Your Income Portfolio This Options Tool Can Show You How to Trade Tesla Stock Ahead of Robotaxi Day Stop Missing Market Moves: Get the FREE Barchart Brief – your midday dose of stock movers, trending sectors, and actionable trade ideas, delivered right to your inbox. Sign Up Now! Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is a global leader in semiconductors based in Santa Clara, California. The company designs CPU, GPU, and adaptive SoCs for data center, PC, gaming console, and embedded markets. AMD is valued at over $205 billion and competes fiercely with Intel (INTC) and Nvidia (NVDA). AMD shares are down 20% over the past 52 weeks and are more than 40% off record highs. However, things could soon start turning around, with shares up 20% in the last three months. Valuation-wise, AMD trades at a forward price-earnings multiple of 40.1x and a price-sales multiple of 7.99x. These are high figures relative to its history but are within range for its large-cap AI hardware peers. The PEG ratio of 1.64x for AMD suggests that the stock is fairly valued relative to growth, but sustained execution, especially in high-margin AI areas, will be required to justify a premium. AMD's first quarter 2025 results exceeded expectations across the board. The company generated revenue of $7.44 billion, 36% higher year-over-year, and non-GAAP EPS of $0.96 trounced consensus by a wide margin. For the coming quarter, management predicted Q2 revenue of $7.4 billion, minus or plus $300 million, and non-GAAP gross margin to be 43%. The latter reflects a $800 million charge related to fresh export restrictions, without which, margin expectations would have been 54%. Segment by segment, data center revenue increased 57% year over year to $3.7 billion due to strong EPYC CPU and Instinct GPU demand. Client segment revenue increased 68% to $2.3 billion with strong Ryzen processor sales. Gaming revenue decreased 30% to $647 million due to lowered semi-custom sales. According to Barchart, there is currently a 'Moderate Buy' consensus rating among 42 analysts for AMD. 28 of them rank it a 'Strong Buy,' one ranks it a 'Moderate Buy,' and 13 rank it 'Hold.' AMD's consensus price target is $133.32, translating to around 4% upside potential from its current price. The most bullish and bearish targets are $200 with 56.3% of upside and $95 with 25.8% of downside risk. The wide range reflects varied perceptions of AMD's AI momentum vis-a-vis execution risks, particularly margin squeeze and global regulatory challenges. On the date of publication, Yiannis Zourmpanos had a position in: AMD. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
When Will Intel Reinstate Its Dividend?
Intel slashed its dividend in 2023 and suspended it in 2024 amid mounting financial strain. The balance sheet is loaded with debt, and cash flow is deeply negative as manufacturing investments pile up. The dividend is unlikely to return until Intel stabilizes its product market share, turns the foundry profitable, and reduces its debt load. 10 stocks we like better than Intel › Semiconductor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) slashed its dividend in 2023 and then pulled the plug completely in 2024 amid chronic struggles and weak financial performance. The initial dividend cut helped the company preserve cash as it plowed capital into its manufacturing operations, while the dividend suspension was coupled with significant layoffs and came a few months before former CEO Pat Gelsinger was shown the door. While Intel has a new CEO with plans to aggressively cut costs and streamline operations, the dividend is unlikely to make a comeback any time soon. Intel has spent the past few years investing in new manufacturing facilities and new process technologies in a bid to regain its manufacturing advantage against TSMC and build out a foundry business of its own. This was always going to be a multiyear endeavor that consumed far more cash than it produced in the beginning. Even today, with the Intel 18A process marching toward volume production, the foundry business generates minimal revenue from external customers. This heavy spending occurred just as Intel's products business hit the skids. A severe downturn in PC demand following a pandemic-era boom hurt the client computing business, as did competition from AMD. In the data center segment, strong products from AMD and a shift in spending toward AI accelerators knocked down revenue and decimated profits. The net result of all of this is a balance sheet that has taken a beating. While Intel had around $21 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of the first quarter of 2025, it also had more than $50 billion in debt. Intel's debt load has been climbing for the past 15 years, rising from next to nothing in 2010 to nearly $30 billion in 2020 and topping $50 billion today. Intel has plenty of cash on hand but needs a big buffer to continue its manufacturing investments and weather an uncertain economic environment. Until Intel's debt is reduced, a dividend is highly unlikely. Intel's products business, which includes all its first-party PC CPUs, server CPUs, and other products, is still profitable. In the first quarter, the products business generated an operating income of $2.9 billion on $11.7 billion in revenue. The problem is the foundry business, which currently generates nearly all its revenue internally from Intel's products business. The foundry business registered an operating loss of $2.3 billion and less than $1 billion in revenue in the first quarter. Add in corporate operating expenses, and Intel produced a total operating loss of $301 million for the quarter. The cash-flow situation looks much worse since Intel's capital spending is vastly outpacing depreciation, thanks to its manufacturing investments. Intel poured more than $5 billion into capital expenditures in the first quarter alone, leading to an adjusted free-cash-flow loss of roughly $3.7 billion. At the moment, Intel's products business isn't generating nearly enough cash to fund the company's ongoing investments. Intel is spinning off and selling off non-core businesses, including the recent sale of a majority stake in Altera, and it reduced its target for gross capital spending in 2025 by $2 billion to $18 billion. Those moves will help the situation, but a rebound in the products business and an influx of external revenue in the foundry business are going to be necessary for the company to even consider restarting its dividend. Under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Intel is planning to slash costs, remove layers of middle management, and downsize its workforce. The company is also putting a renewed focus on engineering and listening to its customers, the latter of which will be critical to winning major foundry customers. Intel's first chips using the Intel 18A process will start shipping by the end of this year, potentially ending AMD's manufacturing lead by catching up to TSMC in terms of performance and efficiency. While Intel's turnaround could gain traction in 2026, the dividend isn't likely to return for some time. Intel has a lot of work left to do to stabilize and then grow its CPU market share and still needs to win major foundry customers and ramp up external foundry revenue. Once all that happens, improving the balance sheet and reducing debt should be the top priority. The dividend is probably not a priority right now, and it will likely be years before the company seriously considers restarting dividend payments to investors. Before you buy stock in Intel, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Intel wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $658,297!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $883,386!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 992% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Timothy Green has positions in Intel. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. When Will Intel Reinstate Its Dividend? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Should You Buy Micron Technology Stock Before June 25?
Micron Technology is a leading supplier of memory and storage chips for data centers, computers, and smartphones. Micron's HBM3E memory was selected by Nvidia to power its Blackwell and Blackwell Ultra AI data center chips. Micron will report its latest quarterly financial results on June 25, and strong revenue and earnings growth might be on the table. 10 stocks we like better than Micron Technology › The semiconductor industry is the beating heart of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, because most development happens in large data centers that are filled with thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) from chipmakers like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD). Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) is another leading chip company, but it doesn't supply GPUs, so it receives less attention than the likes of Nvidia. Instead, Micron makes memory and storage chips, which are becoming extremely important for processing AI workloads, not only in data centers, but also in computers and smartphones. Micron is scheduled to release its financial results for its fiscal 2025 third quarter (which ended on May 30) on June 25, and the company's guidance suggests the report could reveal substantial growth at the top and bottom line, driven by AI. Should investors buy the stock ahead of the release? GPUs are ideal for AI workloads because they are designed for parallel processing, meaning they can handle multiple tasks at once with a high degree of efficiency. But GPUs need memory to store data in a ready state, so it can be called upon at a moment's notice to speed up processing time. Micron's HBM3E (high-bandwidth memory) for the data center is the best in the industry. In fact, Nvidia selected it to power its latest Blackwell and Blackwell Ultra GPUs, which are designed for next-generation "reasoning" AI models. These models require significantly more computing power and memory than traditional large language models (LLMs), because they spend more time thinking in the background to craft the most accurate responses for users. Micron expects the market for data center HBM to double to $35 billion this year, and then grow to $100 billion by 2030. The company is already completely sold out of HBM3E until 2026, and it's now working on HBM4E to stay ahead of the competition. This new solution will launch next year, and it could deliver a whopping 60% more bandwidth than its predecessor. But memory is also a critical component in computers and smartphones -- even more so now that some smaller AI workloads are designed to be processed on-device. In other words, chips are becoming powerful enough to run some AI applications (like chatbots) offline, so they don't need to lean on any computing power from external data centers. As a result, Micron says the minimum DRAM (memory) requirement in an AI personal computer is now 16 gigabytes, up from 12 gigabytes last year for non-AI computers. AI-enabled smartphones have also experienced a jump in memory demand to 12 gigabytes, compared to 8 gigabytes for their non-AI counterparts. During the fiscal 2025 second quarter (ended Feb. 27), Micron generated $8.1 billion in total revenue, which was a 38% increase from the year-ago period. That included $4.6 billion in compute and networking revenue -- where the company accounts for its data center memory sales -- which was up by a whopping 109%. Micron likely had another very strong three-month stretch in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, the results of which will be announced on June 25. The company forecast around $8.8 billion in revenue, which would be a 29% increase from the year-ago quarter. Management didn't offer any specific guidance for the compute and networking segment, but it has been the main driver of Micron's consistent strength over the past year, and that was likely the case again in Q3. Micron's surging revenue is also driving strong growth at its bottom line. The company delivered $1.56 in non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings per share (EPS) during the second quarter, a 271% increase from the year-ago period. Management's guidance suggests non-GAAP EPS came in at around $1.37 in Q3, which would be up 121% year over year. Based on Micron's $5.15 in trailing-12-month EPS, its stock is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 23.3. That makes it much cheaper than Nvidia stock, which trades at a P/E ratio of 45.7. Since Micron's HBM3E is embedded into Nvidia's most powerful GPUs, investors who believe Nvidia's AI chip sales will continue to soar should also hold a positive view of Micron's business from here. Back in March, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said his company already had orders for 3.6 million Blackwell GPUs from just four customers alone, which suggests Micron's data center business could boom for the foreseeable future. Therefore, Micron's success won't hinge on any single quarter. I think the stock could be a great buy right now based on its valuation and the demand pipeline for its memory chips, irrespective of the upcoming June 25 report. As long as investors are willing to hold the stock for the long term, they give themselves a good chance to earn a positive return. Before you buy stock in Micron Technology, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Micron Technology wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $658,297!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $883,386!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 992% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Buy Micron Technology Stock Before June 25? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
