AMD beats first-quarter estimates as data center revenue surges 57%
AMD’s data-center sales jumped 57% to $5.8 billion, signaling the AI race is broadening as the company lifted its second-quarter outlook.
AMD posted a quarter that keeps the market’s focus where it has been for months, on whether the AI chip boom can become a broader challenge to Nvidia. Advanced Micro Devices said first-quarter revenue rose to $10.3 billion, with adjusted earnings of $1.37 a share, while its data-center business surged 57% to $5.8 billion from $3.67 billion a year earlier.
The Santa Clara, California company reported gross margin of 53% on a GAAP basis and 55% on a non-GAAP basis. Operating income reached $1.5 billion, or $2.5 billion on an adjusted basis, with net income of $1.4 billion and adjusted net income of $2.3 billion. Those numbers show a business still being pulled higher by AI infrastructure spending, even as investors continue to look for evidence that AMD can translate that demand into a wider, more durable share of the semiconductor market.
AMD also gave Wall Street a stronger-than-expected second-quarter forecast, projecting revenue of about $11.2 billion, plus or minus $300 million. That was above the $10.52 billion consensus estimate tracked by LSEG and helped lift the stock in after-hours trading. The company discussed the results on a conference call at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 p.m. Pacific, shortly after markets closed.
The message from Lisa Su’s company is that AI demand remains concentrated in the data center, where cloud customers are still spending aggressively on the chips and systems needed to train and run large models. AMD said the quarter came after it announced “Advancing AI 2026” on April 28 and after its February 24 expanded partnership with Meta, which called for deploying 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs. Those moves point to a company trying to turn a handful of large strategic wins into a more durable position in AI infrastructure.
For now, the evidence is strongest in one place: data center revenue. The rest of AMD’s portfolio, including its PC and embedded businesses, remains in the background of the AI story, and this quarter did not change the fact that the company’s near-term valuation is still tied to whether it can keep converting cloud and hyperscale demand into sustained growth.
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