AMD, Apple, Intel and Samsung: data centres up, consumer hardware squeezed

AMD's data centre business brought in $8.5 billion in the third quarter. That was about 63 percent of the company's record $13.4 billion in revenue. The company guided to $17 billion for the current quarter, which would be another record. Total revenue rose $1.9 billion on the quarter. Data centre revenue alone rose $1.8 billion. The data centre unit is now the main engine.

The split matters beyond AMD's income statement. Buyers of PCs, consoles and phones face higher prices and possibly tighter supply. Memory makers serve AI data centre customers first. Nobody has said when prices stop rising. That pressure runs through the rest of the quarter.

Gaming revenue fell 40 percent year on year to $773 million. The drop is the clearest sign of the squeeze.

On Tuesday's earnings call, chief executive Lisa Su acknowledged the component costs. "Our view is, this is one of those times, when, you know, component prices go up, it affects overall system pricing," she said. AMD has "seen a bit of a slowdown in the sell-through". She also said AMD is "planning with the current environment for a down year for 2027". Investors had already marked the stock down. AMD shares fell about 17 percent over two days before the results, after Intel's weak outlook, and are still up more than 120 percent this year. Analysts had expected revenue to rise 41 percent. The market reaction came before the call, not after it.

Apple calls memory pricing unprecedented

Apple chief executive John Ternus told a conference call on Monday that memory pricing is "unprecedented". He predicted memory costs in the current quarter would be higher than in the previous three months. Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices in June and iPhone prices in September. Ternus said those moves had "provided some offset". Revenue rose 12 percent to $114.5 billion. Earnings came in at $2.10 a share against $1.85 a year earlier, including five cents a share from tariff refunds. The margin warning mattered more than the beat.

Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $1.99 a share on $113.4 billion. Shares still fell 2.75 percent in after-hours trading as the margin warning landed. The beat did not protect the shares.

Violeta Todorova, a senior research analyst, said management pointed to memory as the main pressure, alongside the cost of rolling out Siri AI. Shortages are also expected to limit Mac and iPad supply, she said. Memory is not the only cost line.

Intel: data centre up, PCs down

Intel reported third-quarter revenue of $16.5 billion, up 21 percent from a year earlier. Its Data Center and AI group delivered $7.3 billion, up 78 percent, with $3.0 billion of operating income at a 41.5 percent margin. Chief financial officer David Zinsner called it Intel's strongest data centre revenue growth in 15 years. The two halves of Intel moved in opposite directions.

Client computing went the other way, falling 5 percent to $8.1 billion. Intel expects the PC slowdown to run at least through the first half of next year. That guidance covers the near term.

Memory and NAND pricing pressure should persist into 2027, the company said. Intel Foundry posted $6.7 billion in revenue and an operating loss of $1.9 billion, narrower than the $2.3 billion loss a year earlier. Foundry losses narrowed but remained large.

Samsung's memory machine pays for a mobile loss

Samsung Electronics reported operating profit of 107.4 trillion Korean won, 99 percent of it from memory. Sales in its device solutions unit, which covers memory and foundry, reached KRW147.1 trillion, up 344 percent year on year. The result was broadly in line with analyst expectations, and the stock still fell 4.1 percent in Seoul trading on Thursday. Memory carried the quarter.

The mobile device and networks unit lost KRW800 billion, against an operating profit of KRW3.6 billion a year earlier, mostly on higher component costs. Samsung spent 57 trillion won on capex in the first nine months, up 77 percent, and expects full-year investment of KRW84.4 trillion. The mobile loss shows the cost of that dependence.

Chief financial officer Sooncheol Park told the earnings call that memory demand next year will far exceed supply, citing AI investment. That view points to more pressure, not less.

How long the squeeze lasts

Nobody in the supply chain is promising quick relief. Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said substrate availability is limiting output and it will take time to ease. Intel said it does not expect the shortage to improve next year. SK Hynix has predicted it will last until 2030, The Verge reported. Samsung expects AI capital expenditure to reach a historic level in 2027. AMD's chief financial officer Jean Hu said that looking ahead of 2027, data centre will be more than 80 percent of total company revenue. No quick fix is in sight.

For buyers, the arithmetic is simple. Memory makers are prioritising AI data centre customers. The companies that assemble PCs, consoles and phones either absorb the cost or pass it on. That is the squeeze in one line.