AMD’s boosts R&D spending after successful Q3
AMD’s boosts R&D spending after successful Q3
One of the most impressive things about AMD is how the company has been able to challenge their rivals on a shoestring budget, with Intel often earning 10x more than AMD while producing products with higher profit margins. When it comes to financial horsepower, AMD shouldn’t be able to compete with Intel. This factor makes AMD’s recent rise all the more astounding. Â
AMD’s main concern right now is to ensure that its success continues in the coming quarters, which means that the company cannot afford for its R&D efforts to fall behind. AMD’s R&D spending has remained mostly unchanged since Q3 2018, mostly thanks to limited growth and the company’s focus on Zen 2’s launch. Thankfully, AMD’s 7nm success has enabled them to start investing more into its research efforts, with Q3 2019 seeing an 11.8% increase in year-over-year (YoY spending).
In Q4 2019, AMD expects to generate revenues of $2.1 billion, representing a $300 million boost in revenue over Q3. Combine this with higher gross margins, and AMD is likely to spend even more on R&D in Q4. This will fund the development of future CPU/GPU architectures and other products.  Â
| R&D Budget (Million) | 2018 | 2019 | 2019 Increase (QoQ) | 2019 Increase (YoY) |
| Q1 | $343 | $373 | 0.5% | 8.7% |
| Q2 | $357 | $373 | – | 4.5% |
| Q3 | $363 | $406 | 8.8% | 11.8% |
| Q4 | $371 | – | – | – |
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AMD’s original Zen architecture released in Q1 2017 and that quarter saw AMD spend $271 million on R&D. This quarter, AMD spent $406 million, representing an increase of almost 50%. That’s how far AMD has come since the release of Zen.Â
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