Once the leader in the semiconductor world in terms of technology and revenue, Intel expects its third-quarter revenue to be between $12.5 billion and $13.5 billion, primarily due to the low performance of its data center and AI (DCAI) unit. This will now be below the earnings of TSMC and Nvidia and the earnings of memory makers Samsung and SK hynix, as noticed by the Chosun Daily.
Nvidia projects its sales in the third quarter of its fiscal 2025 (August – October 2024) to be around $32.5 billion ±2%, so it will likely be the leader of the semiconductor industry in terms of sales. Technically, the company's earnings in calendar Q3 2024 could be slightly lower, but not significantly. TSMC expects its Q3 2025 revenue to be between $22.4 billion and $23.2 billion.
Samsung and SK hynix typically do not provide revenue guidance for upcoming quarters, so the Chosun Daily cited Omdia's expectations for their earnings. Analysts believe that Samsung's semiconductor sales in Q3 will achieve around $21.712 billion, whereas SK hynix's revenue is projected to total $12.834 billion.
Nvidia and TSMC report revenue as they capitalize on the ongoing AI frenzy. Samsung is taking advantage of its foundry business (which produces chips for its smartphone and consumer electronics divisions). It is enjoying high memory prices and sales of premium HBM3/HBM3E memory, so it is also ahead of Intel.
SK hynix also enjoyed rising memory prices and skyrocketing demand for premium HBM3/HBM3E memory devices used by AI GPUs. Still, for SK hynix, which only makes memory and CMOS, being in line or even ahead of Intel in revenue is certainly not typical for this company.
As for Intel's historical arch-rival AMD, the company forecasts its revenue for the third quarter of 2024 to be around $6.7 billion ±$300 million, so it is still tangibly behind Intel and other companies from the semiconductor sector. Given AMD's dynamics in data centers, the company's business may outshine Intel's in Q3. In the second quarter, the company's data center revenue totaled $2.834 billion, while Intel's data center earnings dropped to $3.0 billion.
Qualcomm, a leading supplier of smartphone application processors, expects its Q4 FY2024 (which is roughly calendar Q3 2024) revenue to be between $9.5 billion and $10.3 billion. This is ahead of AMD but still below Intel's guidance.
Another semiconductor company that will be ahead of Intel in terms of revenue in its Q4 FY2024 (August – October 2024) is Broadcom, which expects its sales to reach $14 billion, up 51% year-over-year. Broadcom has massive networking, storage, optical, and contract chip design businesses. Also, Broadcom is taking advantage of the AI boom as artificial intelligence servers use loads of Broadcom hardware.
However, the company is set to leave Intel behind in earnings because it now owns VMware, which has gigantic infrastructure and software businesses that earn billions every quarter. So, while we can call Broadcom a semiconductor company, a substantial share of its revenue comes from its VMware unit.
