AMD crypto boom is over

A worker checks the fans on miners, at the cryptocurrency farming operation, Bitfarms, in Farnham, Quebec, Canada.Reuters/Christinne Muschi

• AMD surged more than 15% Thursday following its earnings report that topped expectations.
• The company warned that crypto and blockchain revenues would likely fall to nearly zero this quarter.
• Follow AMD’s stock price in real-time here.

The cryptocurrency boom has all but dried up for chipmaker AMD.

After seeing an unexpected boost from the crypto craze earlier this year — which led to graphics cards flying off the shelves — the company admitted on its earnings call Wednesday that it expects the impact to fall to nearly zero in the third quarter.

“For Q2, we were approximately 6% of revenue for blockchain,” Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive, told analysts. “For Q3, we’re planning very little blockchain.”

Despite a recent uptick above $8,000, bitcoin, still the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 39% since this year.

Luckily, AMD said revenue from its data centers and new line of processors called Ryzen made up for any drop in crypto revenue.

“Graphics revenue was down primarily driven by lower blockchain sales partially offset by stronger data center sales,” Devinder Kumar, AMD’s chief financial officer, said on the call. “Forty-four consumer and commercial Ryzen-based desktops and notebooks have been launched this year, and our customers remain on track to bring a total of 60 Ryzen-based systems to market in 2018.”

Shares of AMD surged more than 13% Thursday following the company’s earnings report that topped Wall Street expectations. They’re up 65% this year.

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