AMD shares climb as investors cheer long-term growth targets

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chips are displayed at the Micro Center computer store in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

AMD shares rose nearly five per cent in premarket trading on Wednesday, a day after it laid out ambitious plans to reach US$100 billion in annual data center revenue in five years by taking a bigger slice of the AI market from Nvidia.

CEO Lisa Su said on Tuesday the market for the company’s data center chips is expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2030, betting on AI-driven growth and a deeper software push.

With the bullish targets, AMD is looking to challenge Nvidia in AI computing through its next-generation MI400 chips and the Helios rack system due in 2026.

Nvidia, however, holds a commanding lead in the AI chip market, with far greater market share and ecosystem dominance, making AMD’s challenge an uphill battle. Nvidia’s shares were up about 1.5 per cent in premarket trading.

“AMD’s success will come from being better than NVIDIA on whatever metrics matter most to the customers,” Morgan Stanley analysts said.

“Those parameters may change over time, as bottlenecks such as space, power and component availability all plays a part, but generally we see this as a “winner takes most” market, where the best ROI just wins.”

In the next three to five years, AMD expects 35 per cent growth in its entire business each year and 60 per cent in its data center business, finance chief Jean Hu said at the analyst day - its first such event in three years - held in New York.

The company also expects earnings to rise to $20 a share in the same three to five years. LSEG estimates peg AMD’s 2025 profit at $2.68 per share.

While analysts largely welcomed the stellar growth targets, some warned about execution risks and concerns around sustainability of AI infrastructure spending and supply chain constraints.

AMD shares have gained about 97 per cent this year and are up 16 per cent since Oct. 6, when the company signed a deal with OpenAI.

(Reporting by Rashika Singh and Siddarth S in Bengaluru)