AMD Crushes Q1 Estimates as Data Center Revenue Surges 57%

Advanced Micro Devices delivered first-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, fueled by relentless demand for chips powering artificial intelligence workloads. The stock jumped about 5% in after-hours trading.

For the quarter ending in March, AMD reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.37 against a consensus estimate of $1.29, while revenue hit $10.25 billion—well above the $9.89 billion analysts had forecast. That represents a 38% year-over-year jump from $7.44 billion. The standout performer was the data center segment, where sales climbed 57% to $5.8 billion.

CEO Lisa Su called the data center unit the “primary driver of our revenue and earnings growth,” adding that server growth should “accelerate meaningfully” as the company scales supply to meet demand.

Looking ahead, AMD guided second-quarter revenue around $11.2 billion, topping the $10.52 billion analysts were expecting. Net income more than doubled to $1.38 billion from $709 million a year earlier.

While AMD still trails Nvidia in the GPU market for AI data centers, investors have grown more optimistic that the opportunity is big enough for multiple players. The company’s stock has more than tripled over the past year, including a 66% gain so far in 2026.

AMD’s strength in CPUs is getting a boost from the shift toward agentic AI, which demands more general-purpose compute. Last week, AMD and Intel announced they’ll collaborate on a new x86 instruction set called AI Compute Extensions, promising 16x better compute density and improved energy efficiency.

The broader chip industry is wrestling with memory shortages, manufacturing capacity constraints, and supply chain disruptions tied to the war in Iran—pressures that have driven a frenzy in semiconductor stocks. Intel just posted its best month ever in April, and memory maker Micron has seen its market cap top $700 billion.

Later this year, AMD expects to ship Helios, its first full rack-scale AI system designed to compete with Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin platforms, which sell for over $3 million. Both OpenAI and Meta have already signed on for Helios shipments, signaling that AMD is emerging as a credible second source for hyperscalers scrambling to secure compute capacity.

Source: CNBC