Oct 21 (Reuters) - Xilinx Inc forecast current-quarter revenue largely above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, bolstered by rising sales of its chips to data centers.

The company said it expects third-quarter revenue of $750 million to $800 million, compared to analysts' average estimate of $772.3 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc is in talks to buy Xilinx in a deal that could be valued at more than $30 billion.

San Jose, California-based Xilinx makes programmable chips used in data centers to speed up tasks like artificial intelligence work and in 5G telecommunications base stations.

"Xilinx business continued to strengthen in fiscal Q2, buoyed by the economic recovery and increasing demand across our broad set of end markets," Chief Financial Officer Brice Hill said in a statement.

The company's net revenue fell to $767 million from $833 million in the second quarter, still topping estimates of $755.1 million. The revenue beat was powered by strength in the data center unit, where sales jumped 30% from last year.

Net income fell to $194 million, or 79 cents per share, in the quarter, from $227 million, or 89 cents per share, a year earlier. (Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Stephen Nellis; Editing by Maju Samuel)