Xilinx announces quarterly results, with sharp growth in automotive and data center revenue

Xilinx's quarterly report for the period ended September 2020 showed a 5% month-on-month increase in revenue, partly due to strong sales of its automotive-related chips as the automotive manufacturing industry resumed. Total revenue was $767 million and net profit was $194 million.

Xilinx also recently announced that it has sold 1 billion Spartan series FPGAs in the past 20 years, a milestone never reached by any Xilinx product line.

Last week, rumors circulated that AMD would acquire Xilinx for $30 billion, but Xilinx declined to discuss the matter on Wednesday, and a Citigroup analyst recently said the acquisition was unlikely.

Semiconductors in the automotive market drove a 36% increase in the automotive, broadcast and consumer businesses from the previous quarter. TI also reported on Tuesday that automotive chip revenue improved significantly as auto factories began to reopen in May.

Earlier, Xilinx reported that Zynq MPSoC has received support from Subaru and Continental. Subaru selected Xilinx for its new version of vision-based ADAS system, the new version of EyeSight system integrated in the new Subaru Levorg model, which will provide it with advanced features including adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist and pre-collision braking.

Xilinx will also power Continental’s advanced radar sensor ARS540, with the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC platform for production-ready 4D imaging radar.

In a conference call on Wednesday, Xilinx CEO Victor Peng predicted that the automotive market "has not yet fully returned to its pre-pandemic growth rate."

Victor also presented record quarterly results for the company’s data center and aerospace and defense businesses, with data center growing 30% year over year.

CFO Brice Hill said the company has $232 million in cash flow and is in good financial shape. This quarter, Xilinx expects revenue to reach $750 million to $800 million, a 7% increase from the same period last year.

Hill said Huawei has been completely removed from Xilinx's entire revenue outlook, an apparent result of U.S. trade restrictions on sales to Huawei.

Hill said Xilinx's wired and wireless business was down 36% from a year ago, although the wireless business's move toward 5G may improve this quarter. "5G remains a very strong opportunity for us."