AMD’s investing heavily into its R&D – Spending is up over 18%
AMD’s investing heavily into its R&D – Spending is up over 18%
Research and Development is the lifeblood of every technology company, and while Ryzen and RDNA were developed on shoestring budgets, AMD knows that it needs to invest where it counts if it wants its success to continue.
In Q1 2020, AMD’s R&D spending has increased by over $45 million from its Q4 2019 spend of $395 million. That represents an increase in spending of 11.8% quarter-over-quarter. Year-over-year, AMD’s Q1 R&D spending has increased by almost 18.5%, a change that will make a huge difference to AMD’s future developments.
AMD’s main concern right now is to ensure that its success continues in the coming quarters, which means that the company cannot allow its R&D efforts to fall behind. AMD needs a strong hardware roadmap to continue competing with both Intel and Nvidia, both of which have the ability to outspend AMD. Strong IP and continuous generational improvements will help AMD to continue its positive growth, but as its CPUs and GPUs become more complex, more and more effort will be required to continue pushing the performance envelope.
| R&D Budget (Millions) | 2018 | 2019 | Increase (QoQ) | Increase (YoY) |
| Q1 | $343 | $373 | 0.5% | 8.7% |
| Q2 | $357 | $373 | – | 4.5% |
| Q3 | $363 | $406 | 8.8% | 11.8% |
| Q4 | $371 | $395 | -2.7% | 6.4% |
| R&D Budget (Millions) | 2019 | 2020 | Increase (QoQ) | Increase (YoY) |
| Q1 | $373 | $442 | 11.8% | 18.5% |
AMD’s original Zen architecture released in Q1 2017 and that quarter saw AMD spend $271 million on R&D. In Q1 2020, AMD has spent $442 million, representing an increase in spending of over 60%. That’s how far AMD has come since the release of Zen.
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