AMD Data Center Business Soars 57%, Q2 Guidance Exceeds Expectations

Semiconductor giant AMD has delivered an impressive report card for the first quarter of 2026, with revenue exceeding expectations and increasing by 38% year-on-year. The data center business has become the core engine of growth, and the company has provided a second-quarter outlook that exceeds market expectations.

AMD's revenue for the quarter was $10.25 billion, a year-on-year increase of 38%; non-GAAP earnings per share were $1.37, a year-on-year increase of 43%, both higher than market expectations (analysts had previously forecasted revenue of $9.89 billion and earnings per share of $1.28).

Looking at the business segments, the data center department achieved revenue of $5.8 billion, a significant 57% year-on-year increase, becoming the main driver of overall performance, with sustained volume growth in shipments of EPYC processors and Instinct series GPUs. The client and gaming department achieved revenue of $3.6 billion, a 23% year-on-year increase. The embedded department achieved revenue of $873 million, a 6% year-on-year increase.

AMD forecasts second-quarter revenue to be around $11.2 billion, an increase of about 46% year-on-year, with a fluctuation of $300 million, surpassing the consensus analyst expectation of $10.5 billion compiled by Bloomberg.

AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, stated that the strong demand for inference computing and intelligent agent AI is driving sales of high-performance CPUs and accelerators, with customer orders for the MI450 series and Helios platform exceeding the company's previous expectations.

Data Centers: AI Demand Drives Rapid Expansion of Core Business

The data center department's first-quarter revenue was $580 million, a 57% year-on-year increase, becoming AMD's largest source of revenue for the quarter, accounting for about 56% of total revenue. The operating profit of this department was $160 million, a 72% year-on-year increase.

From a business perspective, shipments of AMD Instinct GPUs continue to climb, while demand for EPYC series server processors is strong. Lisa Su specifically pointed out in her performance statement that server business growth is expected to further accelerate, with expanded supply scale supporting the ability to meet demand.

In terms of strategic cooperation, Meta and AMD announced plans to deploy up to 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs, with the first 1 gigawatt using the custom MI450 GPUs, and Meta also becoming one of the first customers for the sixth-generation EPYC processors (codenamed "Venice" and "Verano").

AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Tencent Cloud have also announced the launch or expansion of cloud computing instances based on the fifth-generation EPYC. In addition, AMD is working with Samsung to develop next-generation AI memory and computing technologies, including providing HBM4 supply for the MI455X GPU, and advancing advanced DRAM solutions for the sixth-generation EPYC.