Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue and profit, and forecast third-quarter sales above expectations, driven by robust demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) chips and data centre processors.
The semiconductor company reported adjusted earnings of US$1.66 per share on US$11.54 billion in revenue for the second quarter ended June, exceeding analysts’ expectations of US$1.60 per share on US$11.25 billion in revenue.
AMD said it expects third-quarter revenue of approximately US$13 billion, plus or minus US$300 million, comfortably ahead of analysts’ forecast of US$12.51 billion. The guidance implies year-on-year revenue growth of about 41 per cent and a sequential increase of 13 per cent.
Despite the stronger-than-expected results and upbeat outlook, AMD shares fell 7.6 per cent in after-hours trading as investors took profits following the stock’s sharp rally this year.
Chief Executive Lisa Su said the company was entering the second half of 2026 with strong momentum as demand for its AI and server products continued to accelerate.
”We enter the second half with strong momentum as EPYC demand accelerates, Instinct deployments scale and Helios begins to ramp. More broadly, AI is driving a significant expansion in demand for compute across all of our markets,” Su said.
AMD’s data centre business remained its fastest-growing segment, generating US$6.72 billion in revenue, up 107.3 per cent from a year earlier, fuelled by strong demand for its EPYC server processors and Instinct AI accelerators.
Revenue from the client and gaming division rose 6.1 per cent year-on-year to US$3.84 billion, supported by continued sales of Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics products.
The results extend AMD’s strong run in the AI semiconductor market, where the company has positioned itself as the leading alternative to Nvidia in supplying chips for AI infrastructure and cloud computing.
The company has secured several large-scale customer commitments this year, including up to 2 gigawatts with Anthropic, 6 gigawatts with Meta Platforms and 2.5 gigawatts with Core Scientific. It has also raised its forecast for the global central processing unit (CPU) market to more than US$200 billion by 2030, while targeting over 50 per cent market share.
AMD has been one of the strongest-performing semiconductor stocks this year, with its shares climbing 142.2 per cent year-to-date, far outpacing Nvidia’s 13.6 per cent gain and the 13 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P 500.
The earnings report comes after heightened volatility across the technology sector. Investor enthusiasm for AI-related stocks cooled in recent months amid concerns over stretched valuations, the pace of returns on heavy AI infrastructure investment and intensifying competition from Chinese technology firms.
Those concerns contributed to the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling 20.6 per cent in July, marking its steepest monthly decline since October 2008. Market sentiment, however, improved towards the end of the month after stronger earnings from major technology companies, reinforcing confidence that spending on AI infrastructure remains resilient.
