It was a good year for the graphics processing units as they drew on the success of cryptocurrencies, part of integral to the mining effort. Companies like AMD have seen their profits grow significantly
As GPU producers waited for a difficult year in 2017, a lifebuoy was thrown at them as people took their pay units. Graphic Processing in a Frenzy
However, this boost turned out to be only temporary as AMD has now said that their time in cryptocurrency is ending. AMD had predicted early on that crypto-boom was not part of its long-term strategy.
Some Stabilize
They said that they were adopting a more conservative view of cryptocurrency mining operations.
"We expect that there will be some leveling of some cryptocurrency claims," said Su:
"Looking at this, it continues to be a factor, but we've seen replenishment in the channels and things like that, so we're a bit conservative on the cryptocurrency side of the equation. "
After publishing their third-quarter earnings report, it was noted that their shares fell by almost 11 percent after the company declared that it was safe. was expecting sales to decrease by about 15 percent in the third quarter.
This is partly because of the slowing demand for the company's GPUs.
Analysts disagree
AMD was spurred by demand for cryptocurrency mining, but the graphics company said that it was difficult to really quantify. Because their cards used by minors are the same as those used for games, there is a difficult line to draw by differentiating the customers.
Mark Lipacis, an analyst at Jefferies, says that he thinks that cryptocurrency demand has contributed about $ 75 million to $ 100 million in revenue during the third quarter. Lipacis is particularly optimistic about the future of cryptocurrency for AMD. After the earnings report, Lipacis reaffirmed its "buy" rating, saying that as long as cryptocurrencies continue to appreciate, AMD will see its graphics card sales increase.
Rick Schafer, an Oppenheimer analyst decidedly less optimistic about AMD's future. He said that cryptocurrencies were the main source of business growth and that AMD expects a slowdown in cryptography-related demand, the medium and long-term prospects of the company are not as strong as predicted by other analysts.