Xilinx revenues improve on auto chip sales

 

Xilinx revenues climbed by 5% sequentially in the September quarter partly due to its strong sales of auto-related chips as vehicle manufacturing resumed.

Revenues for the second fiscal quarter of 2021 ending Sept. 26 were $767 million while net income was $194 million. Revenues were down by 8% over the same quarter in 2019 but at the midpoint of earlier guidance.

Xilinx, the inventor of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip design in the 1980s, recently announced it had sold 1 billion Spartan family FPGAs over the past 20 years.

Such FPGA capability is one reason AMD is rumored to be discussing a $30 billion purchase of Xilinx, although Xilinx refused to discuss the matter on Wednesday. An analyst at Citigroup recently said the purchase is unlikely.

RELATED: AMD in talks to buy Xilinx for $30 billion in another big semi deal

Auto market semiconductors drove a 36% increase over the prior quarter in the Xilinx segment for auto, broadcast and consumer. Texas Instruments on Tuesday also reported an auto chip revenue improvement with auto plant reopenings starting in May.

RELATED: TI sees auto semi market bounce back in third quarter

Earlier, Xilinx reported  Zynq MPSoC design wins with both Subaru and Continental to contribute to the auto improvement. Subaru picked Xilinx to power a new version of its vision-based advanced driver-assistance system called EyeSight to provide adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and pre-collision braking.

Xilinx will also power Continentals’ Advanced Radar Sensor 540 with the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC platform for production-ready 4D imaging radar.

RELATED: Xilinx silicon powers Continental’s advanced radar sensor to deploy in vehicles in 2021

In a Wednesday conference call, Xilinx CEO Victor Peng predicted “robust long-term growth” in the auto market even though he said the auto segment at Xilinx “is not quite back to the pre-Covid run rate.”

He also reported a record quarter in the company’s data center and aerospace and defense businesses. Data center saw 30% annual growth.

With $232 million in cash flow, CFO Brice Hill said the company is in a strong financial position.  For the current quarter, Xilinx anticipates revenues of $750 million to $800 million, up by 7% over the same quarter last year.

Hill said China-based Huawei has been removed completely from the entire Xilinx revenue outlook, apparently a result of U.S. trade restrictions on sales to Huawei.

 The Xilinx wired and wireless segment was down in the second fiscal quarter by 36% over a year ago, although the wireless ramp to 5G will show some improvement in the wireless business in the current quarter, Hill said. 

5G will “still be a very strong opportunity for us,” Hill told analysts. “It’s good to see North America pick up for us.”

Xilinx shares dropped 3% to $111.30 at the Nasdaq close on Wednesday, but regained that loss in early after-hours trading.