Replies to post #70342 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[bobs10]

you...

Here is my stab at trying to figure out costs of manufacturing CPUs between AMD and Intel:

me...

Yeah, I used to keep spreadsheets of costs and Performa income statements. They seldom matched reality, so I stopped doing them and just rely on obvious things. INTC made $.40 and AMD mad $.45, on an apples to apple basis, despite INTC's enormous advantages of scale. I know INTC is a lot more than processors and there are lots of other costs thrown into both AMD's as well as INTC's financials, but to me this says a lot about costs when both companies ASPs are considered. Other things like the number of employees needed to produce similar goods at both companies and the amounts invested in R&D and MG&A by both companies says a lot about the companies relative productivity.

As far as I can tell the way INTC is structured they need all those fabs and huge R&D/MG&A budgets just to stay competitive with AMD. Heck, they're even saying they need more. Well, it kind of makes me wonder, a lot.

Your numbers look as good as any I've seen and are probably in the ballpark.