AMD launched the next-generation GPU MI350 ahead of schedule, but the financial report shows that "the data center business lags far behind NVIDIA."

AMD has advanced the launch of its next-generation GPU MI350, accelerating its catch-up with NVIDIA. At the fourth-quarter earnings call, AMD CEO Lisa Su announced that the launch of the next-generation GPU MI350 series is planned to be moved up to mid-2025, earlier than the previously expected second half of 2025. Lisa Su stated: “Our product progress is better than expected, and customer demand is strong, so we decided to accelerate production, which will enhance our relative competitiveness.” Although AMD's data center business revenue has significantly increased year-on-year, there is still a considerable gap compared to its main competitor, NVIDIA. According to the earnings report, AMD's data center business sales in the fourth quarter grew 69% year-on-year to $3.86 billion, below analysts' previous expectations of $4.12 billion; while NVIDIA's data center business quarterly regular revenue exceeds hundreds of billions of dollars and has grown rapidly, doubling in two years. In terms of annual revenue, AMD's current data center business revenue exceeds $5 billion, while NVIDIA's sales exceed $100 billion. However, AMD has successfully secured important clients over the past year, including Meta, Microsoft, and IBM, further expanding its market share. Lisa Su projected during the call that sales of its Instinct chips will exceed $5 billion in 2024, and expects the data center business to achieve “double-digit” growth in 2025: “I believe the demand for AI computing is very strong, and MI350 will be a catalyst for the data center GPU business... We believe that as we move forward in the coming years, the data center business will grow to hundreds of billions of dollars.” According to the average forecast of Wall Street analysts, AMD's data center revenue this year is expected to reach $18.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 46%. Additionally, some analysts pointed out that the competitive pressure from Chinese AI startups like DeepSeek may prompt U.S. AI companies to further increase spending, which will benefit chip manufacturers including AMD.