Outside of Nvidia itself, AMD remains one of the most amazing stories in tech stocks in the last several years. CEO Lisa Su has taken the company from the doldrums to one of the most tracked and important companies in the world when it comes to computing and technology, with a market cap sitting over $250B. For most of its existence, AMD has benefited from being the second player in two player market; against Intel the CPU space and against Nvidia for graphics chips. This continues to be the scenario AMD finds itself in, but potentially with growth opportunities that exceed that same competition. 

In the new world of AI, there is no more important day than today: Nvidia earnings. The market, including investors and analysts, along with competitors and partners, wait to see how well the new giant in the tech industry is faring, using it as a judgement for AI, chips, and the technology industry in its entirety.

The earnings whirlwind for technology and silicon companies continues this week with AMD reporting its Q4 and full year 2023 results. I know that many other stories and analysts will dive into the dollars more deeply than me, but it’s worth recounting a couple of the key points that I think are relevant to how we look at the ability for AMD to sustain its momentum into 2024.

It’s a tale of two worlds for Intel today, as earnings are reported for the period ending Q4 of 2023 show the company is divided in how successful it has been in a turbulent time for the silicon industry. Revenue was up 10% YoY for Q4 and even better was a gross margin increase of 6.5 points. For the 2023 full year results, total revenue was 14% down compared to 2022 at $54.2B and total gross margin dropped from 42.6% to 40%. Compared to companies like TSMC or even NVIDIA, that had gross margins of 54% and 73% respectively, Intel continues to struggle to find ways to manage costs.

Walking around the exhibit halls and the hotel conference areas in Las Vegas this week during the annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) event there are two things that stand out. First, that this feels like a return to the years before 2020 with the size of the crowds and amount of new products. Second, you simply cannot turn a corner or sit at a blackjack table without someone talking about AI.

It’s hard to imagine that we could repeat the success of the chip and technology sector again next year, with market values increasing by more than 100% for companies like AMD and Nvidia, but financial and technology analyst groups are nearly universal in agreement that this is in fact likely. Fueled by the need for more computing horsepower than ever before, including the rise of AI, chip companies will likely see 2024 as another strong year, with nuances of course between the levels of success.

Intel believes, and has now put the technology world on notice, that it provides the most complete solutions for AI compute across end user and data center product lines. It asserted this clearly and emphatically during the company’s “AI Everywhere” event held in NYC today, rolling out a bevy of new products, demos, and partnerships as supporting evidence. The questions to ask now are simple: is it true? And how does it impact Intel and its competitors in 2024?