AMD vs Cardinal Health: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
AMD reported $34.6B of revenue in FY2025 and $4.3B of net income. Cardinal Health reported $254.2B of revenue in FY2026 and $1.7B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
AMD
- Latest revenue
- $34.6B (FY2025)
- Net income
- $4.3B
- Net margin
- 12.5%
- Revenue growth
- +26.0% a year, FY2016–FY2025
Cardinal Health
- Latest revenue
- $254.2B (FY2026)
- Net income
- $1.7B
- Net margin
- 0.7%
- Revenue growth
- +7.7% a year, FY2017–FY2026
Financial summary
AMD
AMD's decade is a turnaround with a paper trail. Revenue fell to $4.0B in 2015 and the company lost $660M; its market value ended that year near $2.3B. Zen-based Ryzen and EPYC parts, and Intel's process delays, shifted the mix toward servers and then AI accelerators. FY2025 revenue was $34.6B, up 34% from $25.8B, with net income of $4.3B, a 50% gross margin, $8.1B of research and development spending, and $4.1B of marketing, general and administrative expense. Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments rose to $10.6B from $5.1B a year earlier, against $3.3B of total debt principal. The result also absorbed about $440M of net inventory and related charges tied to US export controls on Instinct MI308 products.
Cardinal Health
Cardinal Health combines very large revenue with thin margins. Fiscal 2026 revenue was $254.2 billion, up 14% from $222.6 billion in fiscal 2025, driven by brand and specialty drug volume from existing customers. GAAP operating earnings were $2.6 billion, GAAP diluted EPS was $7.23, and net earnings attributable to Cardinal Health were about $1.7 billion. Non-GAAP diluted EPS rose 37% to $11.26 ($10.95 excluding the IEEPA tariff refund). Operating cash flow was $5.2 billion and adjusted free cash flow was $5.0 billion. The company repurchased $1.4 billion of stock in fiscal 2026 and the board added $5.0 billion to the buyback authorization in August 2026. Fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue was $63.7 billion, up 6%.
Revenue and profit by year
AMD
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $34.6B | $4.3B | 12.5% | +34.3% | Source |
| FY2024 | $25.8B | $1.6B | 6.4% | +13.7% | Source |
| FY2023 | $22.7B | $854M | 3.8% | -3.9% | Source |
| FY2022 | $23.6B | $1.3B | 5.6% | +43.6% | Source |
| FY2021 | $16.4B | $3.2B | 19.2% | +68.3% | Source |
| FY2020 | $9.8B | $2.5B | 25.5% | +45.0% | Source |
| FY2019 | $6.7B | $341M | 5.1% | +4.0% | Source |
| FY2018 | $6.5B | $337M | 5.2% | +23.3% | Source |
| FY2017 | $5.3B | -$33M | -0.6% | +21.6% | Source |
| FY2016 | $4.3B | -$498M | -11.5% | — | Source |
Cardinal Health
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $254.2B | $1.7B | 0.7% | +14.2% | Source |
| FY2025 | $222.6B | $1.6B | 0.7% | -1.9% | Source |
| FY2024 | $226.8B | $852M | 0.4% | +10.7% | Source |
| FY2023 | $205B | $330M | 0.2% | +13.0% | Source |
| FY2022 | $181.3B | -$938M | -0.5% | +11.6% | Source |
| FY2021 | $162.5B | $611M | 0.4% | +6.2% | Source |
| FY2020 | $152.9B | -$3.7B | -2.4% | +5.1% | Source |
| FY2019 | $145.5B | $1.4B | 0.9% | +6.4% | Source |
| FY2018 | $136.8B | $256M | 0.2% | +5.3% | Source |
| FY2017 | $130B | $1.3B | 1.0% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
AMD
- Data Center~48%
EPYC server CPUs, Instinct AI accelerators, Pensando DPUs, AI network interface cards, FPGAs, and adaptive SoCs sold to cloud providers, enterprises, and HPC customers. Net revenue was $16.6B in FY2025, up 32%.
- Client and Gaming~42%
Ryzen desktop and notebook processors, chipsets, Radeon discrete GPUs, and semi-custom SoCs for PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Net revenue was $14.6B in FY2025, up 51%, with Client at $10.6B and Gaming at $3.9B.
- Embedded~10%
Xilinx-derived FPGAs, adaptive SoCs, system-on-modules, and embedded CPUs sold into telecommunications, aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial markets. Net revenue was $3.5B in FY2025, down 3%.
Cardinal Health
- Pharmaceutical Distribution - Branded, Generic, and Specialty~92%
Product sales and fees from distributing branded, generic, and specialty drugs, plus services from specialty practice platforms. Fiscal 2026 segment revenue was $234.8 billion (up 15%) and segment profit was $2.8 billion (up 23%), driven by brand and specialty volume and generics program performance.
- Medical and Surgical Products Manufacturing and Distribution~5%
Sales of Cardinal Health-brand and national-brand medical, surgical, and laboratory products. Fiscal 2026 GMPD revenue was $12.7 billion and segment profit was $258 million, including a one-time $100 million IEEPA tariff refund benefit. Fiscal 2027 guidance calls for $200-$220 million of segment profit.
- Nuclear Pharmacy, at-Home Solutions, and Logistics~3%
Nuclear and Precision Health Solutions (radiopharmaceuticals), at-Home Solutions (direct-to-patient supplies), and OptiFreight Logistics. Together they generated $6.8 billion of fiscal 2026 revenue (up 26%) and $707 million of segment profit (up 37%), the highest margins in the company.
Business model and strategy
AMD
How it makes money
Advanced Micro Devices runs a fabless semiconductor model. It designs CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, FPGAs, and adaptive SoCs, and contracts the wafer manufacturing to outside foundries, primarily TSMC. That structure keeps leading-edge fabrication off AMD's balance sheet and makes engineering its largest investment: research and development cost $8.1B in FY2025, about 23% of revenue.
Growth strategy
AMD's growth plan centers on data center AI, funded by $8.1B of research and development in FY2025. It has bought capability rather than waiting to build it: Xilinx in February 2022 for FPGAs and adaptive computing, a deal announced in October 2020 at about $35B in stock and worth roughly $49B at close; Pensando in May 2022 for DPUs at about $1.9B; Silo AI in August 2024 for AI software engineering at about $665M;
Competitive advantage
AMD's advantage is design and packaging execution without fab ownership. Because it buys capacity from TSMC instead of running leading-edge fabs, it can move to a newer process node as soon as the foundry has one in volume. Its chiplet approach assembles a processor from smaller dies linked by Infinity Fabric, which improves usable yield and makes high core-count parts cheaper to build than a single large die.
Cardinal Health
How it makes money
The business model is large, high-volume logistics divided into two segments: Pharmaceutical and Medical. In the Pharma segment, they buy billions of dollars of drugs from manufacturers (like Pfizer) and distribute them daily to tens of thousands of pharmacies and hospitals, taking a tiny markup.
Growth strategy
Cardinal Health's growth plan rests on three levers. First, specialty pharmaceuticals and physician practice platforms: it bought a 71% stake in GI Alliance for about $2.8 billion (announced November 2024) and funded The Specialty Alliance's roughly $1.9 billion acquisition of urology MSO Solaris Health (completed November 2025).
Competitive advantage
Cardinal Health's advantage is physical scale and regulatory standing. Moving regulated, temperature-sensitive drugs and biologics across the country overnight takes a network of specialized distribution centers and security procedures that cost billions of dollars and take decades to build. The barrier to entry is high, so drug distribution is concentrated among a few large companies.
Questions about AMD vs Cardinal Health
Which company has higher revenue — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Cardinal Health, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. reported $34.6B (FY2025), while Cardinal Health, Inc. reported $254.2B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, Cardinal Health, Inc. is the larger business, with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. vs Cardinal Health, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $999.5B, while Cardinal Health, Inc.'s is $56.0B. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Cardinal Health, Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Cardinal Health, Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. generates $1.12M / employee in revenue per employee, while Cardinal Health, Inc. generates $3.98M / employee. Cardinal Health, Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Cardinal Health, Inc. make money?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Cardinal Health, Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.: Advanced Micro Devices runs a fabless semiconductor model. Cardinal Health, Inc.: The business model is large, high-volume logistics divided into two segments: Pharmaceutical and Medical.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Cardinal Health, Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. trades at 28.9x P/S and Cardinal Health, Inc. at 0.2x P/S. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Cardinal Health, Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. bigger than Cardinal Health, Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Cardinal Health, Inc. ($254.2B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ($34.6B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the AMD vs Cardinal Health overview