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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pravin Kamdar who wrote (112110)	5/23/2000 12:40:00 PM
From: Elmer	Respond to of 1575191

Re: "I think that AMD is trading lower due to a belief that the cost of teaming to build a $1.3 billion FLASH fab will deplete cash and limit earnings until it is shipping in volume in 2002 -- by which time we may again be in an over-supply condition. I share this concern." Here's a comment from Craig Barrett regarding Flash: On forecast for demand for flash memory over the two years: ``We don't make forecast but look at the forecast made by all of the cellular communications manufacturers who are suggesting there may be perhaps 350 million handsets sold this year, growing to a billion handsets within the next three to four years, so a threefold increase in the number of cell phones sold. Each of those cell phone is a big user of flash memory. Increasing user flash memory, you get more capability from the phones. But that's not only the place where you use flash. You use flash in PCs, palm pilots, digital cameras. I am really looking, not that there will be an excess of flash memory this year, but I think there's going to be a shortage in the foreseeable future.'' quote.bloomberg.com

To: Pravin Kamdar who wrote (112110)	5/23/2000 12:42:00 PM
From: xun	Respond to of 1575191

Pravin, RE<I think that AMD is trading lower due to a belief that the cost of teaming to build a $1.3 billion FLASH fab will deplete cash and limit earnings until it is shipping in volume in 2002> Jerry said during the last shareholder meeting that the new mega fab for flash will be self funded. Will that impact the earnings or cash flow? I don't know. Can somebody provide some assessment, please? panic

To: Pravin Kamdar who wrote (112110)	5/23/2000 3:20:00 PM
From: crazyoldman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575191

Hello Pravin, Re: I think that AMD is trading lower due to a belief that the cost of teaming to build a $1.3 billion FLASH fab will deplete cash and limit earnings until it is shipping in volume in 2002 -- by which time we may again be in an over-supply condition. I share this concern. Didn't I hear something from Jerry Sanders when he was in Japan with the initial press release that the porposed new plant would not cost AMD any out of pocket money? Perhaps it was in an interview then or shortly after? I know it sounded "too good to be true" when I heard/read this and it made my ears perk up, anyone else remember this? Kindest regards, CrazyMan

To: Pravin Kamdar who wrote (112110)	5/23/2000 4:23:00 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575191

Pravin, First the plant is suppose to begin shipping in volume (13 million units) by early 2001, and is to be expanded thru 2003. Secondly, if people are selling because a company is expanding facilities for purposes of producing a product that is growing dramatically, then they must be the weak hands everyone talks about...don't you think? ____________________________________________________________ Fujitsu, Advanced Micro to Build Flash-Memory Plant Sunnyvale, California, May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp.'s biggest rival in microprocessors, and Fujitsu Ltd., Japan's largest computer maker, said they'll spend $1.3 billion over two years on a new flash-memory chip plant. Fujitsu and Advanced Micro will complete construction of the plant in early 2001. The companies both compete with No. 1 chipmaker Intel in selling flash memory, which retains data in electronic devices such as cell phones, handheld organizers and digital cameras when the power is off. Chipmakers are racing to make flash memory as sales of devices that use the chips soar. Intel yesterday said it will spend $2 billion to quadruple flash production over the next two years. Sales of flash memory chips are expected to rise to about $15 billion in 2002, up from about $8 billion in 2000, according to researcher Dataquest Inc. Advanced Micro, based in Sunnyvale, California, fell 3 3/8 to 77 1/8 in midday trading. Intel fell 7/8 to 117 1/2. Intel is the biggest maker of flash memory chips, producing 1 billion in the past 12 years. The Santa Clara, California, company has increased its capital spending budget to $6 billion this year as it adds plants to meet demand for memory as well as personal- computer microprocessors. Building Capacity The new Advanced Micro-Fujitsu facility, located north of Tokyo in Fukushima prefecture, will begin making flash memories using the 0.23 micron manufacturing process, then will move to 0.18 micron and smaller. By March, the plant will be capable of producing 13 million units a month, quadrupling to 52 million by March 2003. ``We made this decision to meet with increasing demand from the market and increasing applications for flash memory,'' said Kazunari Shirai, executive vice president of Fujitsu. Fujitsu has benefited from surging sales of microchips used in mobile phones. The company last month said operating profit rose 13.4 percent in the year ended March 31 to 149.9 billion yen. Sales rose to 5.3 trillion yen. Fujitsu rose 45 yen, or 1.5 percent, to 3,000. The Tokyo-based company said it expects a doubling in group operating profit to 310 billion yen in the year through March 2001 on a 9 percent rise in sales to 5.75 trillion yen. Revenue from electronic devices, including chips, is expected to leap 30 percent to 930 billion yen on increasing demand for flash memories. Fujitsu said it expects the worldwide flash-memory market to expand 20 percent next year and beyond as demand for set-top boxes, car navigation systems and digital versatile disc players grows. The chips are also used in products such as heart monitors and automobile antilock-braking systems. For the year to March 31, Fujitsu expects to be able to produce 18 million 16 megabit-equivalent flash memory units a month. May/23/2000 12:05 ET For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here. (C) Copyright 2000 Bloomberg L.P. Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News. The information herein was obtained from sour