AMD: We'll outgrow the market in 2007

Advanced Micro Devices expects to grow its microprocessor business by 20 percent next year, and the only way that's going to happen is by taking more market share from Intel, company executives said Thursday.

Chief Financial Officer Robert Rivet told analysts at a meeting in New York that despite growth projections of just 10 percent for the processor and chipset industry, AMD expects to grow by 20 percent. This includes shipments of processors and chipsets newly acquired from ATI Technologies, but does not include ATI's graphics chips.

AMD has been able to win market share from Intel over the past few years on the strength of its Opteron and Athlon 64 processors. But Intel has righted its ship this year with the introduction of the Core 2 Duo lineup of chips. Intel managed to steal back a little market share in servers during the last quarter as the new processors hit the market, but ceded some ground in notebooks.

Intel believes its new chips will give it the ability to reverse its market share losses to AMD in 2007, said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group, during a meeting with reporters Wednesday. AMD is conceding nothing, however, believing that new server chips expected in the middle of 2007 and an expansion of its new relationship with Dell will help it grow faster than the market.

AMD's stock soared 12.59 percent on the news, up $2.54 to close at $22.71 on the New York Stock Exchange.