AMD vs Intel: Competing in the AI Supercycle
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 1 day ago
0mins
Should l Buy AMD?
Source: Fool
- Strong Performance for AMD: AMD's first-quarter revenue rose 38% year-over-year to $10.3 billion, with a projected 46% growth for Q2, highlighting explosive growth in its data center segment, which saw a 57% increase, showcasing its competitive strength in the AI market.
- Exceptional Cash Flow: AMD generated a record free cash flow of $2.6 billion in Q1, ending the period with $12.3 billion in cash and short-term investments, allowing the company to invest aggressively without relying on debt or shareholder dilution.
- Signs of Recovery for Intel: Intel's Q1 revenue increased 7% year-over-year to $13.6 billion, with its data center and AI group growing 22%, despite a $3.7 billion net loss, indicating the complexity of its turnaround efforts.
- Comparative Market Outlook: While Intel's stock has surged, its future growth remains to be proven, whereas AMD demonstrates stronger long-term investment value through existing products, customer commitments, and robust cash flow.
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Analyst Views on AMD
Wall Street analysts forecast AMD stock price to fall
33 Analyst Rating
25 Buy
8 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 449.700
Low
210.00
Averages
289.13
High
377.00
Current: 449.700
Low
210.00
Averages
289.13
High
377.00
About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. is a global semiconductor company. The Company is focused on high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI). Its segments include Data Center, Client and Gaming, and Embedded. Data Center segment includes AI accelerators, microprocessors (CPUs) for servers, graphics processing units (GPUs), accelerated processing units (APUs), data processing units (DPUs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and Adaptive system-on-Chip (SoC) products for data centers. Client and Gaming segment includes CPUs, APUs, chipsets for desktops and notebooks, discrete GPUs, and semi-custom SoC products and development services. Embedded segment includes embedded CPUs, APUs, FPGAs, system on modules (SOMs), and Adaptive SoC products. It markets and sells its products under the AMD trademark. Its products include AMD EPYC, AMD Ryzen, AMD Ryzen PRO, Virtex UltraScale+, among others.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
AMD Stock Soars 115% Year-to-Date Driven by AI Demand
- Surging Data Center Demand: AMD's Q1 revenue surged 38% year-over-year to $10.3 billion, with data center revenue hitting a record $5.8 billion, driven by strong demand for its EPYC CPUs, enhancing its market position in AI inference and autonomous systems.
- Optimistic Long-Term Growth Outlook: CEO Lisa Su raised the CPU market growth forecast from an annualized rate of 18% to over 35%, indicating a structural growth inflection point for AMD, which boosts investor confidence.
- Growth Catalysts in 2026: AMD is set to launch custom MI450 GPUs in 2026, expected to accelerate data center growth, while EPYC Venice CPUs are on track for release in the second half of the year, further solidifying its enterprise and cloud market share.
- Expanding Market Share: Despite pressures from high memory prices in the consumer PC market, AMD's Ryzen processors saw a 26% revenue increase, and management anticipates continued market share gains, underscoring its competitive edge in both data center and consumer markets.
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- Semiconductor Sector Decline: The iShares Semiconductor ETF is poised to end a six-week winning streak, with Marvell and Intel both down 4%, while ASML and Arm dropped over 3.5%, reflecting diminished investor confidence in the industry.
- Figma Stock Surge: Figma's first-quarter earnings of 10 cents per share on revenues of $333 million surpassed analyst expectations of 6 cents and $313 million, leading to a nearly 9% increase in stock price, showcasing strong market demand for its services.
- Magnum Ice Cream Acquisition Interest: Magnum Ice Cream shares jumped over 17% following reports that firms like Blackstone and CD&R are considering a bid, with potential buyers waiting for summer sales data before proceeding, indicating optimism about the company's growth prospects.
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Semiconductor Industry Fuels AI Boom
- AMD Market Share Growth: AMD launched its MI300X GPU designed for AI workloads in 2023, attracting customers like Oracle and Microsoft, which helped it capture market share from Nvidia, with expectations of 80% revenue growth in its data center business by 2027.
- Next-Gen AI Accelerators: AMD plans to launch the MI450 series AI accelerators by year-end, configured in Helios data center racks, boasting a 36-fold performance increase over previous GPUs, aimed at competing with Nvidia's new system and further solidifying its market position.
- Broadcom's Strong Performance: Broadcom's AI products generated $8.4 billion in revenue in Q1 2026, a 106% year-over-year increase, with guidance suggesting an acceleration to 143% growth in Q2, indicating the growing importance of AI hardware in its business.
- Investment Value Comparison: While AMD's P/E ratio stands at 97.5 compared to Broadcom's 56.9, making the latter more attractive for value investors, AMD's smaller market cap suggests greater long-term growth potential, appealing to growth-oriented investors willing to take on risk.
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AI Infrastructure Build-Out Drives Market Growth
- AI Market Transformation: The build-out of AI infrastructure remains a key growth driver for the stock market, with the shift towards inference and AI agents leading to the emergence of new market leaders, particularly as Nvidia's success in the training phase sets a strong foundation.
- Broadcom's Custom Chip Advantage: As a leader in ASICs, Broadcom has become a preferred partner for hyperscale data centers, with projections indicating over $100 billion in AI ASIC revenue by fiscal 2027, highlighting its strategic importance in the rapidly growing data center networking market.
- AMD's Inference and Agentic AI Opportunities: AMD is poised to capture a significant share of the inference market with its enhanced ROCm software platform and modular chip design, which is expected to offer 1.5 times the memory capacity of Nvidia's upcoming Rubin chips, thereby strengthening its competitive position.
- Future Market Potential: AMD's $100 billion GPU deals with OpenAI and Meta Platforms underscore its leadership in the AI agent market, with expectations that the CPU-to-GPU ratio will shift from 8:1 to 1:1 in the coming years, representing a market potential of $120 billion.
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- Oversubscription Details: The company sold 30 million shares in its IPO, raising $5.6 billion, with demand reportedly oversubscribed by more than 20 times, reflecting intense investor interest in AI hardware firms amid increased spending by Big Tech on AI development and data center expansion.
- Institutional Investment Activity: Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation ETF and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF acquired 105,616 shares of Cerebras on the first trading day, amounting to a stake worth $32.8 million, showcasing institutional confidence in the company and the growing enthusiasm for AI chips.
- Sales Growth Trend: Cerebras reported $510 million in sales last year, a significant increase from $290.3 million in 2024, highlighting its rapid growth potential in the AI chip market, particularly through its partnership with OpenAI, which further solidifies its market position.
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- Strong Market Performance: U.S. stocks surged on the first day of the Trump-Xi summit, with the S&P 500 closing above 7,500 for the first time and the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping 370 points back to 50,000, reflecting investor optimism about improved bilateral relations.
- Strategic Stability Agreement: Trump and Xi agreed to foster a 'constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability', laying the groundwork for future trade and tech cooperation, which could enhance economic integration between the two nations.
- Major Commercial Deal: Trump announced that China will order 200 Boeing jets, seen as a significant win for the U.S. planemaker, which is expected to positively impact Boeing's performance and potentially boost the related supply chain.
- Tech Stocks Shine: AI chipmaker Cerebras saw its shares skyrocket 68% in its Nasdaq debut, reaching a market cap of $95 billion, highlighting the strong demand for high-growth AI companies and further driving up tech stock valuations.
See More
AMD Stock Soars 115% Year-to-Date Driven by AI Demand
- Surging Data Center Demand: AMD's Q1 revenue surged 38% year-over-year to $10.3 billion, with data center revenue hitting a record $5.8 billion, driven by strong demand for its EPYC CPUs, enhancing its market position in AI inference and autonomous systems.
- Optimistic Long-Term Growth Outlook: CEO Lisa Su raised the CPU market growth forecast from an annualized rate of 18% to over 35%, indicating a structural growth inflection point for AMD, which boosts investor confidence.
- Growth Catalysts in 2026: AMD is set to launch custom MI450 GPUs in 2026, expected to accelerate data center growth, while EPYC Venice CPUs are on track for release in the second half of the year, further solidifying its enterprise and cloud market share.
- Expanding Market Share: Despite pressures from high memory prices in the consumer PC market, AMD's Ryzen processors saw a 26% revenue increase, and management anticipates continued market share gains, underscoring its competitive edge in both data center and consumer markets.
See More
Semiconductor Stocks Decline, Figma and Magnum Ice Cream Surge
- Applied Materials Earnings Beat: Despite reporting fiscal second-quarter earnings of $2.86 per share and revenues of $7.91 billion, both exceeding analyst expectations, Applied Materials' stock fell about 2%, indicating market concerns about the semiconductor sector's outlook.
- Semiconductor Sector Decline: The iShares Semiconductor ETF is poised to end a six-week winning streak, with Marvell and Intel both down 4%, while ASML and Arm dropped over 3.5%, reflecting diminished investor confidence in the industry.
- Figma Stock Surge: Figma's first-quarter earnings of 10 cents per share on revenues of $333 million surpassed analyst expectations of 6 cents and $313 million, leading to a nearly 9% increase in stock price, showcasing strong market demand for its services.
- Magnum Ice Cream Acquisition Interest: Magnum Ice Cream shares jumped over 17% following reports that firms like Blackstone and CD&R are considering a bid, with potential buyers waiting for summer sales data before proceeding, indicating optimism about the company's growth prospects.
See More
Semiconductor Industry Fuels AI Boom
- AMD Market Share Growth: AMD launched its MI300X GPU designed for AI workloads in 2023, attracting customers like Oracle and Microsoft, which helped it capture market share from Nvidia, with expectations of 80% revenue growth in its data center business by 2027.
- Next-Gen AI Accelerators: AMD plans to launch the MI450 series AI accelerators by year-end, configured in Helios data center racks, boasting a 36-fold performance increase over previous GPUs, aimed at competing with Nvidia's new system and further solidifying its market position.
- Broadcom's Strong Performance: Broadcom's AI products generated $8.4 billion in revenue in Q1 2026, a 106% year-over-year increase, with guidance suggesting an acceleration to 143% growth in Q2, indicating the growing importance of AI hardware in its business.
- Investment Value Comparison: While AMD's P/E ratio stands at 97.5 compared to Broadcom's 56.9, making the latter more attractive for value investors, AMD's smaller market cap suggests greater long-term growth potential, appealing to growth-oriented investors willing to take on risk.
See More
AI Infrastructure Build-Out Drives Market Growth
- AI Market Transformation: The build-out of AI infrastructure remains a key growth driver for the stock market, with the shift towards inference and AI agents leading to the emergence of new market leaders, particularly as Nvidia's success in the training phase sets a strong foundation.
- Broadcom's Custom Chip Advantage: As a leader in ASICs, Broadcom has become a preferred partner for hyperscale data centers, with projections indicating over $100 billion in AI ASIC revenue by fiscal 2027, highlighting its strategic importance in the rapidly growing data center networking market.
- AMD's Inference and Agentic AI Opportunities: AMD is poised to capture a significant share of the inference market with its enhanced ROCm software platform and modular chip design, which is expected to offer 1.5 times the memory capacity of Nvidia's upcoming Rubin chips, thereby strengthening its competitive position.
- Future Market Potential: AMD's $100 billion GPU deals with OpenAI and Meta Platforms underscore its leadership in the AI agent market, with expectations that the CPU-to-GPU ratio will shift from 8:1 to 1:1 in the coming years, representing a market potential of $120 billion.
See More
Cerebras Shares Surge 68% on IPO Debut
- First Day Trading Performance: Cerebras shares opened at $350, up 68% from the IPO price of $185, closing at $311.07, which catapulted its market capitalization to approximately $95 billion, indicating strong market demand for its AI chips.
- Oversubscription Details: The company sold 30 million shares in its IPO, raising $5.6 billion, with demand reportedly oversubscribed by more than 20 times, reflecting intense investor interest in AI hardware firms amid increased spending by Big Tech on AI development and data center expansion.
- Institutional Investment Activity: Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation ETF and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF acquired 105,616 shares of Cerebras on the first trading day, amounting to a stake worth $32.8 million, showcasing institutional confidence in the company and the growing enthusiasm for AI chips.
- Sales Growth Trend: Cerebras reported $510 million in sales last year, a significant increase from $290.3 million in 2024, highlighting its rapid growth potential in the AI chip market, particularly through its partnership with OpenAI, which further solidifies its market position.
See More
U.S.-China Summit Sparks Market Optimism
- Strong Market Performance: U.S. stocks surged on the first day of the Trump-Xi summit, with the S&P 500 closing above 7,500 for the first time and the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping 370 points back to 50,000, reflecting investor optimism about improved bilateral relations.
- Strategic Stability Agreement: Trump and Xi agreed to foster a 'constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability', laying the groundwork for future trade and tech cooperation, which could enhance economic integration between the two nations.
- Major Commercial Deal: Trump announced that China will order 200 Boeing jets, seen as a significant win for the U.S. planemaker, which is expected to positively impact Boeing's performance and potentially boost the related supply chain.
- Tech Stocks Shine: AI chipmaker Cerebras saw its shares skyrocket 68% in its Nasdaq debut, reaching a market cap of $95 billion, highlighting the strong demand for high-growth AI companies and further driving up tech stock valuations.
See More
