An unusual sight in after-hours trading: AMD shares rose by 15 percent after the publication of the annual report on Tuesday, and even by 20 percent since the daily low. The reason is numbers that are above AMD’s last forecast and above analysts’ expectations. Stock market dampeners after annual reports are actually a tradition at AMD, which has given the company the nickname “Advanced Money Destroyer” in some forums.
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AMD turned over almost $10.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026. The company’s own forecast at the beginning of the year averaged $9.8 billion. Analysts expected only slightly more. According to AMD, the average figure for the current quarter is expected to be $11.2 billion – analysts were expecting an announcement of $10.5 billion.
AMD’s sales are growing by 38 percent year-on-year. Operating profit rose by 83 percent to almost 1.5 billion US dollars and net profit rose by 95 percent to 1.4 billion US dollars.
AI on the growth front
The growth comes primarily from server processors (Epyc) and AI accelerators (Instinct), which are currently increasing every quarter. The segment currently has sales of almost $5.8 billion, 57 percent more than a year earlier.
AMD’s sales broken down. Server hardware is particularly lucrative due to the high sales prices.
(Image: AMD)
Company boss Lisa Su comments: “Customer interest in the MI450 series and Helios is increasing. The forecasts from our most important customers exceed our original expectations and thanks to a growing number of large projects we are gaining more and more clarity about our growth path.”
MI450 stands for upcoming AI accelerators, led by the Instinct MI455X. Under the name Helios, AMD markets its first complete server racks based on Nvidia’s model, including network technology from the acquired company Pensando.
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Uniquely good client numbers
Meanwhile, Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics cards are also doing unusually well. The Client and Gaming segment grew 23 percent year-over-year to $3.6 billion. Ryzen CPUs make up 2.9 billion of these, graphics cards and console chips 720 million. Even compared to the traditionally strong fourth quarter, the division only fell by 8.5 percent.
Market analysts have already observed inflated PC sales figures as manufacturers have stocked up on hardware in anticipation of further rising memory prices. AMD is likely to have benefited significantly from this in the first quarter. However, this effect is unique: a reversal is to be expected due to the storage crisis.
From all indications, the gap between server and client will widen further in the next few quarters. AMD will soon make twice as much money with Epyc processors and AI accelerators as with Ryzen and Radeon.
More money for research and development
Meanwhile, AMD’s tripled cash flow shows special features. For one thing, AMD sold half a billion dollars worth of inventory in the first quarter. On the other hand, AMD still has to pay liabilities worth over $700 million.
AMD has been spending more and more money on research and development since the summer of 2025. Investments in this increased by 39 percent year-on-year to $2.4 billion.
(mma)
