SAN FRANCISCO, April 24, 2026, 04:56 PDT
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices jumped over 7% in U.S. premarket trading Friday, as a surge in central processor names followed Intel’s numbers, which flagged mounting AI data-center appetite outside the graphics chips that have led the sector. AMD and Arm both traded higher; investors are now wagering that answering AI queries—known as inference—will drive heavier use of CPUs in big server clusters.
This shift pushes some of the AI momentum into a space where AMD’s EPYC server CPUs are already entrenched. While GPUs still dominate when it comes to training big AI models, CPUs do the heavy lifting for general server operations and, more and more, step in to coordinate emerging AI workloads.
AMD wrapped up Thursday at $305.33, its market cap landing shy of $500 billion. Premarket action pointed higher, suggesting the stock was poised to break that barrier if the gains stuck. As of April 24, StockAnalysis pegged AMD’s value at $497.79 billion and showed shares trading at $341.65 in early New York hours, just before 8 a.m.
Intel pulled in $13.6 billion in first-quarter revenue, a 7% bump from last year. The chipmaker expects to see between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion for the second quarter. Data Center and AI sales climbed 22% to $5.1 billion, with Intel crediting the surge to strong appetite for server chips powering AI systems, according to the company.
Intel’s Lip-Bu Tan pointed to strong demand for Xeon server chips, telling investors supply still can’t keep up. The CEO expects that dynamic to stick around through this year and next. “Demand continues to run ahead of supply,” Tan noted in the prepared earnings call remarks. Intel Download Center
The ripple effect worked in AMD’s favor. The company has a foot in both camps—CPUs and AI accelerators. Nvidia still dominates GPUs, powering the kind of parallel crunching needed for AI, but it’s making moves on CPUs as well. The boundary between graphics chips and server processors isn’t what it used to be.
The story stretched well beyond a single quarter for Intel, analysts said. Mark Lipacis at Evercore ISI described the moment as a “CPU Renaissance.” Srini Pajjuri of RBC Capital pointed to server CPU demand running ahead of available supply, as cited by Investing.com. Meanwhile, Gus Richard at Northland commented that AI systems could require additional CPUs, especially as tasks move from just training models to inference and agentic AI—where systems plan and execute multi-step actions, not just reply to prompts. Investing.com
AMD’s shares are climbing just ahead of its first-quarter earnings, set for May 5 after the bell. Management will hold a call at 5 p.m. ET that day.
AMD set a new high with its 2025 revenue, coming in at $34.6 billion for the year. Data-center sales in the fourth quarter reached $5.4 billion, a 39% jump, fueled by EPYC processors and growth in Instinct GPU shipments. “Strong momentum” in EPYC, Ryzen, and AMD’s data-center AI business carries the company into 2026, CEO Lisa Su said. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Big AI contracts have fueled the stock’s recent surge. Back in February, AMD announced a deal to supply Meta Platforms with up to $60 billion in AI chips over five years. The agreement opens the door for Meta to acquire as much as 10% of AMD.
Still, there’s not much margin for error if guidance misses. AMD is contending with export restrictions, tough rivals, timing issues on new products, and supply-chain snags—risks the company itself details in filings and earnings reports. Should demand for CPU-centric AI soften faster than bulls hope, or if Nvidia, Intel, and Arm grab more of the spending pie, Friday’s jump could evaporate just as fast.
