Thursday, September 23, 2004
AMD to open new HQ in China
REUTERS
BEIJING: Advanced Micro Devices will open a China headquarters in Beijing as the number two computer chip maker intensifies its focus on the world's second-biggest PC market, executives said on Thursday.
AMD admits it is playing catch-up to arch-rival Intel in China, but thinks it can beat its average worldwide market share of 17-18 per cent, Henri Richard, vice-president of sales, told reporters.
"The centre of gravity of our Asian operations is going to be China more and more," Richard said. Previously, AMD's China operations were run out of Hong Kong.
"There's fertile ground in China for us to have at or above our average market share," Richard said.
Richard declined to give sales or market share figures for China. Intel's China revenue was nearly $3.7 billion in 2003, higher than AMD's entire global sales of just over $3.5 billion.
Richard said China was promising for AMD because local PC makers and the DIY – “do it yourself" – segment were larger than in places like the United States that are dominated by multinational giants.
"China is a market where the multinationals don't have a significant share of the business. It's more global strategic OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and the DIY market. That's a market that's favourable to AMD," Richard said.
Sunnyvale, California-based AMD has invested around $200 million in China, including $100 million in a new facility announced in April that will test and package microprocessors.
With PC sales estimated at 13 million units last year, China overtook Japan to become the world's second-biggest market after the United States. Sales are expected to grow nearly 20 percent this year, according to IDC.
The creation earlier this year of AMD China would help serve a growing list of Chinese customers, chief executive Hector Ruiz told reporters.
In August, AMD said a new line of chips for inexpensive PCs would be used by the Lenovo Group, China's top PC maker. In March, AMD struck a deal to sell its chips to Founder Group, one of the country's top three computer firms.
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