NEW YORK, March 12, 2026, 19:17 EDT
Advanced Micro Devices slid 3.4% to $197.74 in late trading Thursday, dipping under the $200 mark as tech stocks took a hit. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.8%. Nvidia gave up 1.4%, while Intel was off 5.7%.
This comes as AMD works to prove that the AI investment surge can fuel real, lasting growth, even as the largest cloud players double down on building their own chips and memory remains a supply bottleneck. Both issues intensified in the last 24 hours: Meta just announced a fresh internal AI chip strategy, and Reuters says CEO Lisa Su is set to visit South Korea next week for memory supply talks.
Wall Street sold off, jolted by Iranian attacks on two oil tankers that sent crude prices surging close to $100 a barrel. The move reignited concerns about persistent inflation just days before the Federal Reserve’s March 17 meeting.
Meta rolled out four new in-house AI chips on Wednesday, with one already powering its recommendation systems. Later versions are aimed at inference—the phase when a trained AI spits out responses. “We see inference demand exploding at the moment,” Yee Jiun Song, Meta’s vice president of engineering, told Reuters. Back in January, Meta put its capital spending forecast for this year at $115 billion to $135 billion, and said Broadcom was collaborating on some aspects of the chip design. Reuters
Meta isn’t turning its back on external chipmakers, even as it develops its own. Last month, Reuters reported Meta struck a deal to purchase as much as $60 billion worth of AMD AI chips over five years. Meta’s infrastructure chief, Santosh Janardhan, said at the time, “all of the chip makers end up having sort of a seat at the table.” For Hargreaves Lansdown, analyst Matt Britzman summed it up: “Meta is locking in supply.” Reuters
Reuters said Wednesday that Su is set to meet with Samsung Chairman Jay Y. Lee next week, the focus being high-bandwidth memory (HBM)—the kind of fast, dense memory crucial for AI chips. The visit also brings a session with Naver, and notably comes as Nvidia’s GTC developer conference is underway in San Jose.
AMD finds itself caught in a tough spot. Higher-for-longer rates, driven by any extended oil shock, could put pressure on high-flying chip names. At the same time, Meta and other hyperscalers are rolling out more of their own custom silicon, which may limit the gains AMD can expect from its latest AI wins. “It’s a sell first, ask questions later type of mentality,” said Carson Group’s chief market strategist Ryan Detrick, summing up Thursday’s trading sentiment. Reuters
AMD is still dealing with the aftermath of a tough February update. The company projected first-quarter revenue around $9.8 billion—falling short of what it posted in the fourth quarter. Shares dropped 13% on the news, with investors doubting how soon AMD can close the distance with Nvidia and translate AI demand into stronger growth.
