AMD beat Wall Street estimates in the third quarter with revenue of $13.38 billion, up 45% year over year, as its data center segment nearly doubled and now represents 64% of total revenue. CEO Lisa Su projected server revenue would double again in 2027.
Advanced Micro Devices posted third-quarter results Tuesday that exceeded Wall Street expectations, with revenue rising 45% from a year earlier to $13.38 billion — against a consensus estimate of $13.09 billion — and data center sales approaching a doubling, sending shares up 8% in extended trading.
Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.09, topping the $1.95 that analysts had projected, the company said in a statement. Revenue in the year-ago quarter stood at $9.25 billion.
The data center segment now accounts for 64% of AMD's overall revenue, up from 47% a year ago, underscoring how thoroughly the unit has reshaped the company's earnings profile. CEO Lisa Su said on the earnings call that she expects server revenue to double year over year in 2027, with data center AI demand growing even faster than the company had projected 90 days prior.
"Adoption is just starting, and we expect demand to grow sharply as agents are deployed more broadly and take on more complex work," Su said.
Su also pointed to AMD's supply chain preparations as a signal of confidence in the growth trajectory. "We have worked across our supply chain to secure the wafers, substrates, advanced packaging, memory, and other key components needed to support much higher growth next year," she said.
AMD's results arrive just days after Intel disclosed data center revenue growth of 78% in its own third quarter — though Intel's stock fell 29% on Friday amid concerns about weak guidance and questions about its ability to meet demand.
A major factor driving AMD's data center momentum is the rise of agentic AI applications, which rely heavily on server central processing units rather than graphics processing units. AMD's server CPUs power the virtual machines that agentic apps run on for extended periods. Meta's Muse application was cited as an example of this category.
Meta, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Oracle are all deploying AMD's Helios rack-scale systems, which compete directly with Nvidia's Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin products. Meta said last week that its Helios racks are operational. AMD has separately agreed to invest $1 billion in Meta's equity offering and has committed up to $5 billion in Anthropic.
In September, AMD announced it would acquire World Labs, a San Francisco-based AI lab founded by Fei-Fei Li, for $8.2 billion in an all-stock deal. The company is focused on so-called world models that simulate 3D environments for robotics and physically grounded AI development.
Not all segments are performing equally. Revenue in the combined PC and gaming segment fell 8% from a year earlier to $3.7 billion, with gaming revenue down 40%. Global PC shipments declined 4% in the second quarter from a year ago due to elevated memory and component costs, according to Counterpoint Research.
For the fourth quarter, AMD guided for approximately $17 billion in revenue, ahead of the $16.2 billion average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. The company projects a gross margin of roughly 55%, fractionally below the 55.3% consensus tracked by StreetAccount.
AMD shares were up approximately 125% year-to-date heading into the report, though the stock had pulled back over three consecutive sessions before Tuesday's rally amid broader industry anxiety over AI infrastructure spending levels.
The broader market context adds complexity to AMD's otherwise strong print. Democrats secured significant midterm election victories overnight, including the Texas governorship, which investors are now weighing against planned data center construction concentrated in that state. Wells Fargo estimates that 27% of planned U.S. data center gigawatts are located in Texas — a figure that takes on new significance given incoming Governor Gina Hinojosa's stated support for a moratorium on AI data center development.
AMD shares rose 6.8% in premarket trading Wednesday, even as other AI-adjacent names came under pressure from the election outcome, reflecting investor confidence that the company's near-term earnings trajectory remains intact even as the policy landscape shifts.
Jay Goldberg is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering technology, markets, and policy. He files the breaking news and deal coverage that move the publication's core desks.
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