AMD's record quarter: Data center business doubles, while gaming craters

AMD reported third-quarter revenues on Tuesday with a record $13.4 billion, an increase of 45 percent year over year, as data center business nearly doubled and the company's gaming segment cratered.

AMD CFO Jean Hu said, "We expect revenue to be approximately $17 billion, plus or minus 3%. The middle point of our guidance represents approximately 66% year-over-year revenue growth, primarily driven by the acceleration of our Data Center segment." AMD says its Q4 revenue projections are up another 27 percent from this quarter's results. As reported by Tom's Hardware, Intel's Q4 guidance places revenue estimates between $15 and $16 billion. That means that if both companies land where they expect to at the end of the fourth quarter, AMD would exceed Intel's revenue for the first time in history.

The data center segment of AMD's business was up 97 percent year over year, with a record $8.5 billion. …