AMD Data Center Sales Jump 107% to $6.7 Billion as Shares Slide After Hours

AMD said Tuesday that it posted record second-quarter revenue and beat analyst expectations, but its shares fell about 9% in late trading. Data Center revenue reached $6.7 billion, up 107% from $3.2 billion a year earlier, and the company's third-quarter forecast cleared the average estimate, but the guidance did not reflect the scale of Helios-driven growth some analysts had wanted. Bloomberg reported that the stock had more than doubled during 2026 and that the reaction suggested AMD needed to show faster growth to justify its valuation.

For the quarter ended June 27, AMD reported revenue of $11.54 billion, up 50% from $7.69 billion a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were $1.66 a share, compared with the $1.62 LSEG consensus cited by CNBC. GAAP net income rose to $2.30 billion from $872 million in the year-earlier quarter, but the comparison does not show a clean underlying gain. The June 2025 quarter included $800 million in inventory and related charges tied to U.S. export controls on MI308 accelerators, as well as an $853 million tax reserve release tied to IRS relief for dual consolidated losses. Those items distorted the year-earlier base in opposite directions.

Data Center revenue reached $6.7 billion, up from $5.8 billion in the March quarter. The unit supplied 58% of AMD's revenue in the June quarter, with the company crediting demand for EPYC server processors and Instinct accelerators. "Demand for both accelerators and CPUs is growing well above our prior expectations," Chief Executive Lisa Su said on the earnings call.

AMD forecast third-quarter revenue of about $13 billion, plus or minus $300 million. At the August 4 release date, the midpoint represented growth of about 41% from the third quarter of 2025 and 13% from the June quarter. It also topped the $12.52 billion LSEG consensus reported by CNBC, although the network said some analysts had looked for as much as $14 billion.

"AMD earnings were good. Market wanted a blowout guide driven by Helios," Futurum Group Chief Executive Daniel Newman wrote on X, in remarks carried by Benzinga. Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy noted that Helios had not yet contributed meaningfully to the reported results. Helios combines AMD CPUs, GPUs and networking in a rack-scale system meant to compete with Nvidia's complete systems. Shipments begin in the third quarter of 2026, AMD said, with volume expected to rise in the fourth quarter.

AMD's June-quarter capital expenditure was up from $282 million a year earlier. Futurum Equities strategist Shay Boloor wrote that "AMD delivered a strong quarter into an almost perfect bar but the market fixated on capex more than doubling from $389M to $808M."

Andrew Rocco of Zacks Investment Research offered a counterpoint. Investors had recently punished companies showing little spending discipline, he said, but AMD needs more capital to launch new products and secure scarce memory. "I wouldn't look hard into it for now," Rocco said.

Gaming revenue fell 31% to $779 million from $1.12 billion a year earlier as semi-custom sales declined. Client revenue rose 23% to $3.06 billion from $2.50 billion over the same period, partly offsetting that drop.

"We expect Data Center sales to accelerate in the second half of 2026, driving stronger overall revenue growth and continued earnings expansion," Chief Financial Officer Jean Hu said.

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Marcus Schuler

San Francisco

Editor-in-Chief and founder of Implicator.ai. Former ARD correspondent and senior broadcast journalist with 10+ years covering tech. Writes daily briefings on policy and market developments. Based in San Francisco. E-mail: editor@implicator.ai