Latest news with #MI325X
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
1 Semiconductor Stock That Could Be a Surprise AI Winner
AMD's EPYC processors are increasingly used by cloud providers and Fortune 2000 enterprises. The chipmaker is building next-generation products to support AI models right out of the box. Elsewhere in AMD's business, its gaming and PC chips are also seeing strong demand. 10 stocks we like better than Advanced Micro Devices › Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) is gradually evolving from mostly a traditional chip company to a prominent artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure player. While Wall Street has been mostly focusing on Nvidia, AMD has quietly established itself as a strong player in the AI data center business. The company provides high-performance computing hardware and software solutions to clients for processing cloud and AI workloads. In the first quarter of 2025, data center revenue grew 57% year over year to $3.67 billion, making up almost half of AMD's total revenue. Data center AI business revenue also increased by a double-digit percentage year over year, driven by increased shipments of the MI325X accelerators for new cloud and enterprise workloads. With AI inferencing costs escalating rapidly, AMD is in a better position to capture a bigger share of the AI market. Its Instinct GPUs are known to offer superior price performance than competitors. Here are some more reasons why the company may prove to be a surprise AI winner in 2025. AMD's data center business is experiencing robust momentum, driven by solid demand for its EPYC server processors and Instinct AI accelerators. AMD accounted for 25.1% share of the server CPU market, up 2 percentage points year over year, as EPYC server processors continue to be in high demand from both cloud players and enterprise customers. All major cloud players are engaging with the company in the development of fifth-generation EPYC CPUs, codenamed "Turin." EPYC processors are also in high demand from enterprise customers across a range of industries and functions. The company expects enterprise adoption of EPYC processors to further accelerate, as more than 150 server platforms using these chips will become broadly available in the coming quarters. The company's data center AI business is also gaining traction. Multiple Tier 1 cloud and enterprise customers have opted for AMD's Instinct AI accelerators in the first quarter. These clients include one of the largest frontier model developers, which has deployed Instinct GPUs to cater to a significant portion of its daily AI inferencing workloads. AMD has also started sampling the next-generation MI350 series GPUs with several customers and is on track for production by mid-2025. With MI350 offering higher performance, memory capacity, bandwidth, support for new data types, and network efficiency as compared to the MI300 series, AMD expects strong deployment for these chips in the second half of 2025. Furthermore, the company is gearing up for the launch of MI400 series GPUs in 2026. AMD is also focusing on strengthening its software ecosystem, mainly its ROCm software stack for programming the company's GPUs. Instead of releasing quarterly ROCm updates, the company is now delivering them on a biweekly basis. The company has also increased access to its Instinct compute infrastructure for open-source developers to build, test, and deploy updates to the ROCm stack on a nightly basis. Subsequently, 2 million models on the open-source Hugging Face platform are running directly on AMD hardware without needing any special customization. The company is also ensuring that newly released AI models can run without hiccups on Instinct accelerators immediately after launch. Finally, the recent acquisition of ZT Systems is enabling AMD to sell fully integrated AI systems, instead of just hardware components. All these AI initiatives can dramatically expand AMD's data center business in the coming years. AMD's client segment also reported a strong 68% year-over-year revenue jump to $2.3 billion in the first quarter. The company experienced record client CPU average selling prices (ASPs), driven by increased demand for its high-end desktop and Ryzen processors in gaming and commercial segments. While AMD's processors are increasingly adopted in gaming desktops, the company is also seeing rising demand in the mobile computing market. Furthermore, sales of the company's latest-generation AI-capable processors also grew more than 50% quarter over quarter in the first quarter. AMD is also making its presence felt in the commercial PC space, with the company closing deals with large enterprises across several industries. Despite the solid tailwinds, AMD's shares are currently trading at 21.7 times forward earnings, significantly lower than Nvidia's forward P/E multiple of 25.4. While investors should not ignore the short-term revenue headwind arising from the export control restrictions for Instinct MI308 shipments to China, the fundamentals of the company are still strong. Hence, with a diversified product portfolio spanning various segments such as data center, gaming, and client; a robust balance sheet with $7.3 billion in cash; and a reasonable valuation position, AMD appears an attractive pick now. Before you buy stock in Advanced Micro Devices, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Advanced Micro Devices wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $620,719!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $829,511!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 959% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 170% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 12, 2025 Manali Pradhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 Semiconductor Stock That Could Be a Surprise AI Winner was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
5 No-Brainer AI Stocks to Buy in May
Artificial intelligence (AI) could be the most significant economic transformation since the internet. These five companies offer strategic exposure to different aspects of the AI value chain, from chips and infrastructure to specialized applications. 10 stocks we like better than Advanced Micro Devices › Artificial intelligence (AI) may be the most transformative technological revolution since the advent of the internet. Economic forecasts project that AI could add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, fundamentally reshaping industries from healthcare and finance to manufacturing and entertainment. Unlike previous technological shifts, AI's unique capacity for autonomous learning, decision-making, and problem-solving creates exponential value across virtually every sector of the economy. This unprecedented economic potential has ignited a global race for AI dominance among corporations and nations alike. For investors seeking exposure to this technological revolution, the following five companies represent compelling opportunities. Read on to find out more about these incredible AI pioneers. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) is gaining ground on Nvidia with its new MI325X AI accelerator, boasting massive memory bandwidth and strong generative AI performance. Microsoft plans to deploy the chip across its Azure cloud, giving AMD a powerful boost in visibility and adoption. With demand for AI infrastructure surging and AMD offering a more cost-effective alternative to Nvidia's H100 and H200, this stock stands out as a high-upside pick in the accelerating AI race. Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) continues to lead in AI infrastructure through its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, which reported $29.3 billion in revenue for first-quarter 2025, marking a 17% year-over-year increase. AWS has expanded its AI offerings with its Nova family of models, including Nova Premier for complex reasoning tasks and Nova Sonic for speech-to-speech applications, enhancing its capabilities across both text and multimodal AI domains. In the consumer space, Amazon has integrated generative AI features across its platforms, with Nova Sonic already powering elements of Alexa+ and the widely available Rufus shopping assistant. Nova Sonic particularly stands out for its ability to understand speech in different speaking styles while generating natural-sounding responses, with Amazon claiming it achieves 46.7% better accuracy than competing models in noisy environments and maintains lower operating costs. With AWS positioned to grow beyond a "multi-$100-billion-dollar revenue run rate business" due to AI, according to CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon remains exceptionally well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for AI solutions across both enterprise and consumer markets. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) is the sole manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, which are critical for producing the most advanced semiconductors used in AI applications. These machines enable the creation of chips with extremely fine features, essential for high-performance AI processing. ASML's unique position in the semiconductor supply chain makes it a pivotal player in the AI industry, regardless of which chip designers lead the market. Its functional monopoly on EUV lithography also gives the company a formidable economic moat. Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: APLD) develops high-performance data centers tailored for AI workloads. These facilities are built to support dense deployments of graphics processing units (GPUs), which are essential for large-scale model training and inference. The company is expanding aggressively, with new campuses engineered for energy efficiency and advanced cooling. As demand for AI compute surges across sectors, Applied Digital is positioned to benefit by providing scalable, cost-effective infrastructure to enterprise and cloud clients. This makes it a compelling infrastructure-level play in the AI buildout. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) has shifted from an AI underdog to a front-runner with the release of its Llama 4 family of open-source models. The company's new multimodal systems -- Llama 4 Scout and Maverick -- can process text, images, video, and audio, and a larger "Behemoth" model is in training to rival the best in class. This surge in AI development is translating to real-world results. Meta AI now serves nearly 1 billion monthly active users across all Meta platforms combined, while WhatsApp's total user base exceeds 3 billion monthly users. WhatsApp has emerged as the primary platform where users engage with Meta AI, driving most one-on-one AI interactions. In April 2025, Meta launched a stand-alone Meta AI app, signaling its intent to compete head-on with OpenAI and Alphabet. The bottom line? Meta is well-positioned to lead in consumer AI -- and that fact makes its stock an attractive buy right now. Before you buy stock in Advanced Micro Devices, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Advanced Micro Devices wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $613,546!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $695,897!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 893% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 162% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. George Budwell has positions in Microsoft and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 5 No-Brainer AI Stocks to Buy in May was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This Incredibly Cheap Semiconductor Stock Is About to Go on a Terrific Bull Run
The increasing demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment drives solid growth for this company. An acceleration in this semiconductor company's growth, combined with its cheap valuation, makes it a no-brainer buy right now. Share prices of Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX) shot up more than 6% following the April 23 release of its fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings (for the three months ended March 30), driven by the company's stronger-than-expected results and guidance that point toward strong demand for its semiconductor manufacturing equipment. So far this year, the stock has been under pressure due to its reliance on China for a large chunk of sales and the turmoil caused by the ongoing tariff war. However, Lam's results and outlook indicate that it is doing well despite those challenges, thanks to the robust demand for its chipmaking equipment sparked by catalysts such as artificial intelligence (AI). Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Let's take a closer look at the factors driving Lam's growth and examine why this semiconductor stock is worth buying hand over fist right now. Lam Research reported 24% year-over-year growth in revenue for the previous quarter, while its non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net income grew at a faster pace of 30%. Lam management attributed the impressive growth to the robust demand for leading-edge foundry equipment, which is used in manufacturing advanced chips deployed in AI servers as well as smartphones and personal computers (PCs). Meanwhile, the strong demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is turning out to be another tailwind for Lam's manufacturing equipment. That's not surprising, as memory equipment accounts for 43% of Lam's total revenue, and memory manufacturers have been ramping up the output of HBM to meet demand from chipmakers such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. For instance, memory specialist Micron Technology expects the HBM industry to generate $35 billion in revenue this year. That's higher than the $30 billion estimate Micron issued in December last year. This upward revision in the HBM market's growth can be attributed to the growing size of this memory type in the latest AI graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia's latest-generation Blackwell GPUs (graphics processing units) are packing 4 times the memory as compared to the previous generation Hopper processors. Similarly, AMD has increased the HBM capacity on its MI325X AI GPU by 96 gigabytes (GB) over its previous MI300X chip. As a result, it is easy to see why memory manufacturers such as Micron and Samsung are investing more money in HBM capacity. With the HBM market expected to exceed $100 billion in annual revenue by 2030, Lam Research should ideally witness solid demand for its memory manufacturing equipment over the long run. Another thing worth noting is that Lam Research expects to grow at a faster pace than the overall wafer and fabrication equipment (WFE) market. Management believes that the growing complexity of chips, combined with the company's strong product portfolio, places it in a nice position to gain a bigger share of the WFE market. What's more, Lam management says it has "not seen any meaningful changes to our customers' plans" amid the tariff-fueled trade war. All this explains why the company's guidance for the current quarter is well ahead of expectations. Lam management said it expects revenue in the current quarter to land at $5 billion at the midpoint of its guidance range. That's significantly higher than the $4.6 billion consensus estimate. Lam's guidance points toward a potential year-over-year increase of 29% in its top line, an acceleration over the growth it recorded in the previous quarter. Earnings, meanwhile, are expected to increase at a faster pace of 48% thanks to an expansion in margins. Moreover, Lam management believes the company could achieve revenue of $25 billion to $28 billion by 2028, which would be a big jump compared to the $16 billion it generated in 2024. Throw in the company's improving margin profile, and it won't be surprising to see Lam maintaining healthy levels of earnings growth in the future. That's why it would be a good idea for investors to buy this semiconductor stock, as it is currently trading at less than 20 times trailing earnings, a discount to the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 index's trailing earnings multiple of 27. The stock's 12-month price target of $90, as per 33 analysts covering Lam, points toward 26% gains from current levels. But don't be surprised to see it do better than that, thanks to its healthy bottom-line growth, which could encourage the market to reward it with a premium valuation. Before you buy stock in Lam Research, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Lam Research wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $607,048!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $668,193!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 880% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 161% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 28, 2025 Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Lam Research, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This Incredibly Cheap Semiconductor Stock Is About to Go on a Terrific Bull Run was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Globe and Mail
09-04-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Is Advanced Micro Devices Stock a Buy as Shares Plunge Below $80?
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have taken a hit and dipped below $80 this week, shedding nearly 20% over the past five sessions as market sentiment soured on escalating trade tensions. With AMD's considerable exposure to Chinese markets and reliance on third-party manufacturing, mainly through Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), the market remains concerned about the potential impact of tariffs on the company. Tariffs Threaten Semiconductor Supply Chains At the center of this decline is a policy shift from President Donald Trump's administration. Last week, Trump introduced reciprocal tariffs, targeting a long list of U.S. trading partners. While semiconductors are exempted, the relief may only be temporary. Adding to the pressure, tariffs were levied on wafer fabrication equipment imported into the U.S. While AMD relies on Taiwan Semiconductor for manufacturing, the ripple effect of these tariffs could still impact its bottom line. AMD is at a disadvantage compared to its larger rival, Nvidia (NVDA). Unlike Nvidia, which reported an adjusted gross margin of 75.5% in fiscal 2025, AMD's margin stood at 53%. This significant margin gap provides a thinner cushion to AMD and limits its ability to absorb cost increases without eating into profits. AMD's China Exposure Presents a Major Risk Further, China's role in AMD's business is important. AMD reported revenue of $6.23 billion from China (including Hong Kong) in 2024, about 24.2% of its total sales. Thus, a retaliatory tariff from China on American technology products would make AMD's chips more expensive for Chinese buyers, potentially hampering its competitiveness in one of its most important markets. Wall Street has begun recalibrating expectations. KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst John Vinh recently downgraded AMD from 'Buy' to 'Hold,' citing uncertainty around its artificial intelligence (AI) business in China and concerns over margin sustainability. This has deepened investor skepticism, especially with AMD lagging behind Nvidia in several key performance metrics. AMD's Growth Drivers Still Intact Yet, it's not all doom and gloom. AMD's core business remains strong, and the company continues to show impressive growth in areas critical to its long-term strategy, particularly in data centers and AI. In 2024, AMD reported $12.6 billion in revenue from its data center segment, marking a 94% year-over-year increase. This was primarily driven by surging demand for its Instinct MI300X GPUs. The company is also moving aggressively to cement its place in the AI ecosystem. Its acquisition of Silo AI marks a strategic move to enhance its in-house AI development capabilities. With this acquisition, AMD aims to deliver high-performance AI models optimized for its hardware architecture. On the product side, AMD is rolling out an ambitious lineup. The MI325X GPUs are ramping production, and the company is already laying the groundwork for its next-generation MI350 series. These GPUs are expected to deliver significant performance and energy efficiency. Looking further, AMD has its eyes set on the MI400 series. It's also investing heavily in ROCm, its open software platform. AMD Stock's Valuation While analysts have a 'Moderate Buy' consensus rating on AMD stock, the recent price drop may represent a value opportunity for long-term investors. With a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.6x, AMD appears attractively priced, especially given its double-digit earnings growth potential. For instance, analysts expect AMD to post earnings per share (EPS) of $3.87 in 2025, up 47.7% year-over-year. AMD's bottom line is projected to increase 36.2% in FY26. However, AMD's valuation becomes less compelling when compared to Nvidia, which trades at a slightly higher 23.5x P/E but commands superior margins, has a leading market share in the AI space, and is well-placed to navigate macroeconomic shocks. Conclusion: Bargain or Value Trap? Ultimately, while AMD's stock has become cheaper and its long-term potential remains intact, its short-term outlook remains clouded by geopolitical risks and competitive pressures. Thus, investors looking for a stock in the semiconductor space may find Nvidia to be a more appealing option.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
1 No-Brainer Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock to Buy Before It Skyrockets
Though Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) stock has witnessed big swings so far in 2025, shares of the memory specialist are still up 15% this year, as of this writing, and it looks like the stock is set to fly higher following the release of its fiscal 2025 second-quarter results. Micron released its latest quarterly report (for the three months ended Feb. 27) on March 20. The company recorded a massive increase in its top and bottom lines last quarter and crushed Wall Street's expectations handsomely. What's more, Micron's guidance for the current quarter also exceeded consensus estimates, which was not surprising, as the company is witnessing remarkably strong demand for its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that's deployed in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Let's take a closer look at Micron's latest quarterly report and see why it may be a good idea to buy this semiconductor stock right away. Micron's fiscal Q2 revenue shot up an impressive 38% year over year, while its non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings increased at a much faster pace and jumped 3.7x from the year-ago period to $1.56 per share. Micron's outstanding growth was powered by record revenue from dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used in data centers. Sales of Micron's HBM chips that are used by the likes of Nvidia in its data center AI graphics processing units (GPUs) shot up 50% on a sequential basis, generating more than $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the company. HBM chips alone are moving the needle significantly for Micron right now, considering that the company's total quarterly revenue landed at just over $8 billion. Micron's HBM business is likely to remain a key growth driver in the future as well, as AI chipmakers have been packing in bigger memory into their data center GPUs. For instance, Advanced Micro Devices is packing 288 gigabytes (GB) of HBM into its MI325X AI GPUs, which the company started shipping last quarter. That's higher than the 192 GB of HBM that the company's previous MI300X chip was sporting. Similarly, Nvidia has also bumped up the HBM capacity in its latest Blackwell processors to 192 GB from 141 GB in the previous-generation Hopper H200 processor. Given that these chips are in solid demand, it is easy to see why Micron has sold out its entire HBM capacity for 2025. Even better, Micron expects strong HBM demand to continue in 2026. As a result, the company is ramping up the production capacity of HBM chips in its existing facilities and recently broke ground on a new HBM facility in Singapore. It may have to add additional HBM production lines in the future, as Micron started "volume shipments to our third large HBM3E customer and anticipate additional customers over time." Micron has increased its total addressable market (TAM) estimate for HBM in 2025 to $35 billion from its December 2024 estimate of $30 billion. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the global HBM market could generate a whopping $130 billion in annual revenue in 2033. So there is a good chance Micron's HBM business will remain a critical growth driver for the company in the long run. These catalysts tell us why Micron's outlook for the current quarter is solid. The company is expecting its revenue to jump by 29% in the current quarter from the year-ago period, while its earnings forecast of $1.57 per share would translate into a massive jump of 153% from last year. However, the possibility of Micron exceeding these estimates cannot be ruled out if it manages to bring more capacity online to meet the healthy demand for HBM. Additionally, the rapid growth in Micron's earnings makes this AI stock a no-brainer right now, considering its attractive valuation. Micron is trading at 29 times trailing earnings, while its forward earnings multiple of 14 points toward a big bottom-line jump. The tech-laden Nasdaq-100 index, for comparison, has trailing earnings multiple of 22 and forward earnings multiple of 13. All this makes Micron Technology a top stock to buy right now, as it has the potential to jump higher thanks to the eye-popping growth that it is delivering and its solid prospects in the HBM market. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $288,966!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $42,440!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $526,737!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of March 24, 2025 Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 No-Brainer Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock to Buy Before It Skyrockets was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
