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AMD vs Intel — Profit Margin Comparison

Computer chips

Computer chips. Pexels Images.

This article presents the financial performance of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel Corporation by comparing their profitability and profit margins.

It provides an in-depth analysis of key metrics such as gross profit, operating profit, pre-tax profit, and net profit, offering a well-rounded view of how each company performs financially

Let’s look at the numbers!

For other statistics of AMD, Inc. and Intel Corporation, you may find more information on this page: AMD key stats and Intel key stats.

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Gross Profit: Gross profit is the amount a company earns after subtracting the costs associated with producing and selling its products or providing its services. It’s a key indicator of a company’s financial health and efficiency in managing production costs.

Here’s the formula:

\[\text{Gross Profit} = \text{Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)} \]

Gross profit helps to measure a company’s ability to generate profit from its core business operations, excluding indirect costs like administration and marketing expenses.



Operating Profit: Operating profit, also known as operating income or operating earnings, represents the profit a company makes from its core business operations, excluding any income from investments, interest, and taxes.

It’s a crucial measure of a company’s operational efficiency and profitability. Here’s the formula for calculating operating profit:

\[\text{Operating Profit} = \text{Gross Profit – Operating Expenses} \]

Operating expenses include costs such as salaries, rent, utilities, and depreciation. Operating profit provides insight into how well a company is managing its core business activities and controlling its operating costs.

Pre-Tax Profit: Pre-tax profit, also known as pre-tax income or earnings before tax (EBT), represents the profit a company makes before accounting for income taxes.

It’s a measure of a company’s profitability that excludes tax expenses, providing insight into the company’s financial performance before tax obligations are considered.

Here’s the formula for calculating pre-tax profit:

\[\text{Pre-tax Profit} = \text{Operating Profit + Other Income – Other Expenses} \]

Other income may include items like interest earnings, and other expenses might include interest expenses or non-operating costs.



Net Profit: Net profit, also known as net income or net earnings, is the amount of profit a company has left after all expenses have been deducted from total revenue.

These expenses include the cost of goods sold (COGS), operating expenses, interest, taxes, and any other expenses. Net profit is a key indicator of a company’s overall profitability.

Here’s the formula for calculating net profit:

\[\text{Net Profit} = \text{Total Revenue – Total Expenses} \]

Net profit provides a clear picture of a company’s financial health, showing how much profit it actually retains after covering all its costs. It’s often used by investors and analysts to assess a company’s performance and profitability.

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Why was Intel’s profit margin deteriorating?

Intel’s profit margin has faced challenges due to several factors:

  • Declining PC Sales: A historic slump in global PC demand has significantly impacted Intel’s revenue, as its personal computing segment is a major contributor to its income.

  • Manufacturing Issues: Intel has struggled with longstanding manufacturing inefficiencies, which have hindered its ability to compete effectively with rivals like AMD and TSMC.


  • Increased Competition: Competitors such as AMD and Nvidia have gained market share, particularly in data centers and high-performance computing, further pressuring Intel’s margins.

  • Economic Headwinds: Broader macroeconomic uncertainties, including inflation and reduced IT spending, have also contributed to weaker profitability.

  • Restructuring Costs: Intel has incurred significant expenses related to restructuring efforts aimed at improving operational efficiency.

Despite these challenges, Intel has been working on strategic pivots, such as focusing on AI-driven computing and leveraging government support like the CHIPS Act, to stabilize and improve its financial performance.

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Insight & Summary of AMD and Intel’s Profitability and Margins Comparison

AMD and Intel moved in opposite directions between FY2019 and FY2025. AMD scaled profit at every level of the income statement, while Intel's profit pool shrank from a dominant position to operating and net losses before showing early repair in the latest year.

  • Gross Profit Convergence and Margin Crossover: AMD's gross profit grew from $2,868M to $17,152M while Intel's fell from $42,140M to $18,375M, narrowing Intel's lead from nearly 15 times AMD's level to just 7% above it. AMD stayed within a 42.6%–49.5% gross margin band throughout, whereas Intel's declined from 58.6% to a low of 32.7% in 2024, with AMD moving ahead in 2022. The AMD advantage widened to 16.7 points in 2024 before easing to 14.7 points in 2025.

  • Operating Profit: Cyclical Recovery Versus Deep Reset: AMD's operating margin has been cyclical but resilient. It peaked at 22.2% in 2021, compressed to 5.4% in 2022 and 1.8% in 2023, then recovered to 7.4% in 2024 and 10.7% in 2025, when operating profit of $3,694M was the highest in the period. Intel's operating margin declined every year from 30.6% in 2019 to 0.2% in 2023, fell to -22.0% in 2024 (-$11,678M) and narrowed to -4.2% (-$2,214M) in 2025, an improvement of $9,464M. AMD has out-earned Intel at the operating level since 2023.

  • Cost Base Versus Gross Profit: The gap between gross profit and operating profit, which captures operating costs and other charges, explains much of Intel's margin reset. It was $20,105M in 2019 and $20,589M in 2025, almost unchanged, while gross profit fell 56%. The 2024 gap of $29,023M was the outlier, and $8,434M of the 2025 operating improvement came from its normalization, with the remaining $1,030M from higher gross profit. At AMD the same gap grew about six-fold, in line with its gross profit, so the 2025 operating margin of 10.7% is only 1.3 points above the 9.4% of 2019.

  • Below-the-Line Items and Net Profit Quality: Intel's pre-tax profit exceeded its operating profit in every year, and in 2025 non-operating items turned an operating loss of $2,214M into a pre-tax profit of $1,557M, a $3,771M swing. Most of that did not reach the bottom line, as net profit was $26M (a 0.0% margin). In 2024 the net loss of $19,233M was $8,023M deeper than the pre-tax loss, taking net margin to -36.2% against a pre-tax margin of -21.1%. AMD's net profit exceeded its pre-tax profit in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2025, which points to tax benefits or other below-the-line items, most visibly in 2020 when its 25.5% net margin sat well above a 14.0% operating margin. AMD's 2025 net profit of $4,335M, a 12.5% margin, was the highest in the period and sits close to its 10.7% operating margin.

  • Structural Takeaway & Trend: Structurally, the two companies have traded places. AMD combines a higher and steadier gross margin with operating profit that has risen in each of the last two years, while Intel's earnings power has been reset to a much lower base, with a cost line that has not shrunk in step with gross profit. The changing trend is Intel's 2025 inflection: it is the only year in the period in which all four of its margins improved together, led by gross margin (32.7% to 34.8%) and operating margin (-22.0% to -4.2%). A 0.0% net margin and reliance on non-operating items indicate that the repair is still early and partial.

    AMD's momentum is easing at the margin, as gross margin was nearly flat in 2025 (49.4% to 49.5%), so further operating margin gains from 10.7% toward its 2021 peak of 22.2% would need to come from cost leverage or higher gross profit. If these patterns persist, the foreseeable path is a narrowing of the gap at the operating level, with Intel approaching operating breakeven and AMD building on its lead, although AMD's 2022 reversal, when operating margin fell from 22.2% to 5.4%, shows how quickly the cycle can turn.



The table below combines all AMD and Intel’s key profitability metrics into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

AMD vs Intel Profit and Profit Margin Analysis — 3-Year Average (FY2023–FY2025)

Metric 3-Year Average (FY2023–FY2025)
AMDIntel
Profit Numbers
Gross Profit$13,446M$19,144M
Operating Profit$1,998M-$4,600M
Pre-Tax Profit$2,207M-$2,964M
Net Profit$2,277M-$5,844M
Profit Margin
Gross Profit Margin48.3%35.8%
Operating Profit Margin6.6%-8.7%
Pre-Tax Profit Margin7.3%-5.6%
Net Profit Margin7.6%-11.0%

Dollar averages rounded to the nearest million US dollars; margin averages are the simple average of the annual margins, rounded to one decimal place.

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AMD vs Intel: Gross, Operating, Pre-Tax, and Net Profit Numbers


View data as table

AMD vs Intel Profit Numbers — By Year

Fiscal Year Gross Profit ($ Millions)Operating Profit ($ Millions)Pre-Tax Profit ($ Millions)Net Profit ($ Millions)
AMDIntelAMDIntelAMDIntelAMDIntel
2019$2,868M$42,140M$631M$22,035M$372M$24,058M$341M$21,048M
2020$4,347M$43,612M$1,369M$23,678M$1,275M$25,078M$2,490M$20,899M
2021$7,929M$43,815M$3,648M$19,456M$3,669M$21,703M$3,162M$19,868M
2022$10,603M$26,866M$1,264M$2,334M$1,184M$7,768M$1,320M$8,017M
2023$10,460M$21,711M$401M$93M$492M$762M$854M$1,675M
2024$12,725M$17,345M$1,900M-$11,678M$1,989M-$11,210M$1,641M-$19,233M
2025$17,152M$18,375M$3,694M-$2,214M$4,140M$1,557M$4,335M$26M

* AMD’s fiscal year begins on Jan 1 and ends on Dec 31.
* Intel has a 52- or 53-week fiscal year that ends on the last Saturday in December. Fiscal years 2025 ended on 27 Dec 2025.

You can find the definitions of all profitability metrics here: gross profit, operating profit, pre-tax profit, and net profit.

The accompanying graph highlights that Intel consistently achieves a much higher gross profit compared to AMD. Similarly, Intel’s operating profit has historically outperformed AMD’s.

AMD vs Intel Profit Numbers — Averages (FY2023–FY2025)

Metric 3-Year Average (FY2023–FY2025)
AMDIntel
Gross Profit$13,446M$19,144M
Operating Profit$1,998M-$4,600M
Pre-Tax Profit$2,207M-$2,964M
Net Profit$2,277M-$5,844M

Dollar averages rounded to the nearest million US dollars.

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AMD vs Intel: Gross, Operating, Pre-Tax, and Net Profit Margins


View data as table

AMD vs Intel Profit Margin — By Year

Fiscal Year Gross Profit Margin (%)Operating Profit Margin (%)Pre-Tax Profit Margin (%)Net Profit Margin (%)
AMDIntelAMDIntelAMDIntelAMDIntel
201942.6%58.6%9.4%30.6%5.5%33.4%5.1%29.2%
202044.5%56.0%14.0%30.4%13.1%32.2%25.5%26.8%
202148.2%55.4%22.2%24.6%22.3%27.5%19.2%25.1%
202244.9%42.6%5.4%3.7%5.0%12.3%5.6%12.7%
202346.1%40.0%1.8%0.2%2.2%1.4%3.8%3.1%
202449.4%32.7%7.4%-22.0%7.7%-21.1%6.4%-36.2%
202549.5%34.8%10.7%-4.2%12.0%2.9%12.5%0.0%

* AMD’s fiscal year begins on Jan 1 and ends on Dec 31.
* Intel has a 52- or 53-week fiscal year that ends on the last Saturday in December. Fiscal years 2025 ended on 27 Dec 2025.

You can find the definitions of all profitability metrics here: gross profit, operating profit, pre-tax profit, and net profit.

Intel has historically maintained a strong lead over AMD in terms of gross and operating profit margins, as illustrated in the chart above. However, this advantage has eroded significantly in recent years.

AMD vs Intel Profit Numbers — Averages (FY2023–FY2025)

Metric 3-Year Average (FY2023–FY2025)
AMDIntel
Gross Profit$13,446M$19,144M
Operating Profit$1,998M-$4,600M
Pre-Tax Profit$2,207M-$2,964M
Net Profit$2,277M-$5,844M

Dollar averages rounded to the nearest million US dollars.

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References and Credits

1. All financial figures presented were obtained and referenced from AMD’s and Intel’s annual reports published on the respective company’s investor relations page: AMD Investor Relations and Intel Investor Relations.

2. Pexels Images.

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Disclosure

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