New York, Jan 15, 2026, 10:12 EST
- Wells Fargo reaffirmed its Overweight rating on AMD, holding firm on a $345 price target and naming it its top pick for 2026
- RBC kicked off coverage of AMD with a Sector Perform rating and set a $230 price target, citing concerns over execution risk and competition from internal chip designs at major clients
- A Zacks note pointed out that Baidu shares have surged roughly 25% in the last month, driven by ongoing interest in AI-related stocks
Wells Fargo stuck with Advanced Micro Devices as its leading stock pick for 2026, reaffirming an Overweight rating and a $345 price target, according to an Investing.com report on Thursday. AMD gained roughly 5%, trading near $223 in early action. 1
The significance of the call lies in AI’s shift from a winner-takes-all scenario to a more complex challenge involving execution, pricing, and customer retention. Late Wednesday, RBC Capital kicked off coverage on AMD with a Sector Perform rating and a $230 price target. The firm noted AMD is gaining traction with major cloud clients but flagged the usual “rack-scale” deployment risks as the company pushes into full-system designs like Helios. RBC also cautioned that some key customers are developing their own application-specific chips, or ASICs. 2
AMD’s upside still leans heavily on OpenAI. Back in October, the chipmaker inked a multi-year deal to supply AI chips to the ChatGPT creator, which included warrants giving OpenAI the potential to snap up as much as a 10% stake, Reuters reported. 3
OpenAI is expanding its bets. This week, it announced plans to acquire up to 750 megawatts of computing power from AI chip startup Cerebras, in a deal worth over $10 billion. The capacity will be rolled out in phases through 2028, a source told Reuters. 4
OpenAI positioned the Cerebras partnership as a move to cut latency — essentially speed during model responses, or “inference” as it’s called in the industry. “OpenAI’s compute strategy is to build a resilient portfolio that matches the right systems to the right workloads,” said Sachin Katti of OpenAI. Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman added, “real-time inference will transform AI.” 5
AMD took a different tack Wednesday, unveiling a strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services aimed at helping firms transition AI projects from pilot phases into full production. “AI adoption is accelerating,” said AMD CEO Lisa Su. TCS CEO K. Krithivasan described the deal as “a significant step in scaling AI for the enterprise.” 6
The stock showed real strength. A Motley Fool piece published on Nasdaq noted AMD surged 77.3% in 2025, outpacing the S&P 500’s 16.4% gain. Nvidia also posted a solid 38.9% rise during that stretch. 7
Baidu caught the spotlight as a “trending stock,” aside from the U.S. chipmakers. According to a Zacks note on Yahoo Finance, the Chinese search giant’s shares have surged roughly 25.2% in the last month, outpacing the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s modest 2.1% gain. 8
Still, the headline figures are the straightforward part; the real challenge lies in timing. AMD’s valuation stays lofty—Wells Fargo and RBC both highlight a triple-digit price-to-earnings ratio—and RBC warned that customers developing their own chips might undercut AMD’s push to expand into new systems.
