Advanced Micro Devices AMD is set to release its first-quarter 2026 results on May 5.
AMD expects first-quarter 2026 revenues of $9.8 billion (+/-$300 million). At the mid-point of the revenue range, this represents year-over-year growth of approximately 32% and a sequential decline of approximately 5%. The revenue guidance includes roughly $100 million of MI308 sales to China.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMD’s first-quarter revenues is pegged at $9.84 billion, suggesting year-over-year growth of 32.3%. The consensus mark for first-quarter 2026 earnings is pegged at $1.30 per share, up a couple of cents over the past 30 days. The earnings estimate indicates growth of 35.4% on a year-over-year basis.
Consensus Estimate Trend
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AMD beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in all the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 5.96%.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Quote
Let’s see how things have shaped up for the upcoming earnings announcement.
Factors to Note Ahead of AMD’s Q1 Results
The mid-point of AMD’s first-quarter guidance reflects strong growth in the Data Center, Client and Gaming segments and modest growth in the Embedded segment. However, sequential revenue decline is attributed to a seasonal decline in Client and Gaming, and the Embedded segment, partially offset by growth in the Data Center segment.
AMD’s first-quarter 2026 performance is expected to have benefited from continued strong demand for its EPYC processors and Instinct accelerators. Strong server CPU demand has been a key catalyst for AMD. As hyperscalers expand their infrastructure to meet growing demand for cloud services and AI, EPYC is gaining adoption. AMD is gaining traction in the data center AI business. The company delivered record Instinct GPU revenues in the fourth quarter of 2025, led by strong demand for MI 350 Series. The trend is expected to have continued in the to-be-reported quarter.
However, AMD continues to face stiff competition from NVIDIA NVDA, Broadcom AVGO and a resurgent Intel INTC. NVIDIA is benefiting from the strong growth of its newer Hopper and Blackwell GPU platforms. Broadcom expects a positive second-quarter fiscal 2026 performance, with AI revenues of $10.7 billion, suggesting a 140% year-over-year upsurge. Intel reported strong first-quarter 2026 results with revenues growing 7% year over year. Strong demand for Xeon server CPUs, AI PCs and higher 18A wafer production, along with better pricing, improved product mix, and rising advanced packaging and Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) revenues, drove results.
AMD Stock Outperforms Sector
Advanced Micro Devices shares have surged 59.1% year to date (YTD), outperforming the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s return of 8%. The company’s shares have underperformed Intel but outperformed NVIDIA and Broadcom, YTD. Shares of Intel, Broadcom and NVIDIA have appreciated 150.9%, 19.3% and 9.3%, respectively.
AMD’s Share Price Performance
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The AMD stock is not so cheap, as its Value Score of F suggests a stretched valuation at this moment.
In terms of the forward 12-month price/sales, AMD is currently trading at 10.86X, higher than the sector’s 6.49X and Intel’s 8.14X but lower than AVGO’s 15.08X and NVIDIA’s 13.29X.
AMD Stock’s Valuation
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AMD Rides on Strong Portfolio Amid Stiff Competition
AMD’s prospects ride on its “AI Everywhere, for Everyone” strategy. The introduction of the Helios rack-scale platform, Instinct MI400 series lineup and Ryzen AI 400 and AI PRO 400 Series processors for AI PCs are noteworthy developments in this regard.
Helios is gaining traction, as evident from AMD’s deals with OpenAI for deployment of 6-GWs of instinct GPUs, HPE’s plan to offer Helios racks with purpose-built HPE Juniper Ethernet switches and optimized software for high bandwidth scale-up networking, and Lenovo’s announced Helios racks offering. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is set to launch the first publicly available AI supercluster using AMD’s Helios rack design, featuring Instinct MI450 GPUs, EPYC Venice CPUs and Pensando Vulcano networking.
The launch of the MI500 series, powered by AMD’s CDNA 6 architecture built on advanced 2-nanometer process technology and featuring high-speed HBM4E memory, is expected to drive further growth. AMD currently expects the data center total addressable market to hit $1 trillion by 2030, suggesting a CAGR of more than 40% from roughly $200 billion estimated in 2025. AMD expects its data center AI revenues to see a CAGR of more than 80% over the next 3-5 years. Overall, data center business revenues are expected to see an annual growth rate of more than 60% over the next three to five years.
Conclusion
AMD’s expanding portfolio and strong AI-related demand are expected to have improved its top-line growth in the to-be-reported quarter. Despite stiff competition and stretched valuation, AMD benefits from strong demand for its EPYC chip and Instinct accelerators. This makes the stock attractive for investors.
AMD currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a Growth Score of A, a favorable combination that offers a strong investment opportunity, per the Zacks Proprietary methodology. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).