AI Boom Fuels AMD's Most Profitable Quarter, Despite 40% Drop in Gaming Revenue

Given the ongoing AI-driven component cost crisis, it's not surprising to hear that even giants like AMD need to adapt to the new reality.

CEO Lisa Su took part in the company's Q3 earnings call today, and reported that AMD's gaming revenue dropped by a massive 40 percent year-on-year, largely as "semi-custom" sales like consoles and handhelds slid. She also stated that the PC market in general is set to continue to decline in 2027, with a "double-digit percentage" drop in the number of computers shipped forecast.

Despite that, the huge AI boom has lead to huge revenues in other areas for AMD, with the company celebrating its largest and most profitable quarter ever and a 45 percent increase in year-on-year revenue.

Su is also bullish on AMD's chances in the gaming space for next year, stating that the company would "outperform the market" with its Ryzen roadmap. After debuting its first Zen 6 processors as Epyc workstation parts, that 2027 roadmap should see the same core tech come to desktop.

Using the Epyc parts and recent rumours as a guide, we expect to see core complex dies with eight, 10 or 12 cores (up from a maximum of eight on Zen 5). That would allow for prosumer chips with a full-fat 24-core dual-CCD layout, or pure gaming processors with 12 cores on a single X3D die.

We'll be looking towards these new AMD parts with interest, as we expect both Sony and Xbox to use Zen 6 chipsets in their upcoming PS6 and Project Helix consoles - and the PC parts could give us a better idea of what to expect in terms of next-gen console performance.

What do you make of the news? Let me know in the comments below.