Financial results for the last quarter showed a solid performance from AMD, which contrasts with the near-universal decline in tech company revenue. AMD is one of a dozen major companies that have not laid off workers and raised salaries this year. How should it be in a company that bets on the future by retaining talent and after a few years of gigantic benefits that some forget at the slightest sign of failure, which on the other hand always needs to regain strength.

The tech industry will recover in 2024, even if we didn’t want to talk to you about it and wanted to AMD’s “secret” weapon get good results: PS5 sales.

We’ve already talked about the good work of the Santa Clara company since it was run by CEO Lisa Su, and simultaneously with the commercialization of Ryzen, whose subsequent generations gradually encroached on Intel in processor market share, especially in PCs. In the graphics business, the situation is different, and NVIDIA is unbeatable today. Of course, the very expensive dedicated PC games where the green giant shines are only part of the equation, and there are other segments of graphics chips where there is business to be had.

AMD and PS5 sales

In a presentation of financial results for the last quarter, AMD explained that an anonymous customer represented a sixth of its net income in 2022. After analyzing the numbers, a semiconductor industry analyst named the customer. And it’s none other than Sonywhich would account for between 16 and 20% of AMD’s revenue and become its main client.

You have to remember that AMD provides the main processor and graphics engine the latest generation of Sony consoles with its own chip. The quarterly period ending December 31, 2022 was the best ever for PS5 sales, with 7.1 million units.

And we have to add in combined sales for the first three quarters of fiscal 2022, when 12.8 million were sold, bringing total sales since launch to 38 million at the end of the year. Not bad considering the manufacturing issues in recent years it has reduced supply and sales terribly. Sony expects to sell an additional 6.2 million PS5s in the first quarter of 2023, with a portion of the proceeds going to AMD.

AMD also makes its own SoC, which Microsoft uses in its Xbox consoles, but revenues are lower as analysts estimate that – like the PS4 – PS5 sales are 60 percent higher than the latest Xboxes. Microsoft stopped releasing Xbox sales figures a while ago, opting instead to focus on subscription and digital sales, but all analysts estimate the PS5 to be well ahead.

NVIDIA with Nintendo

Claiming that NVIDIA is the one operating the main engine of the third great console, the Nintendo Switch, which, according to official figures, sold 1 million units in the last quarter of 2022 and is estimated to have accumulated a whopping 122 million since its launch.

However, its reliance on consoles is much less than what Sony envisions for AMDbecause dedicated graphics for PC games and accelerators for servers are more important businesses for the green giant than consoles.

We’ll see where console sales go this quarter. At least there are options to buy, which didn’t happen in 2022.