AMD Earnings Beat Forecasts as Data Center Sales Nearly Double

AMD earnings for the third quarter of 2026 came in well ahead of Wall Street’s forecasts, as the chipmaker’s data center business nearly doubled year over year on demand for its Instinct AI accelerators and EPYC server processors. Revenue hit a record $13.38 billion, up 45% from $9.25 billion a year earlier, and the company guided to roughly $17 billion for the current quarter.

According to AMD’s official results release, GAAP net income rose to $2.43 billion, or $1.46 per diluted share, from $1.24 billion a year ago. On an adjusted basis, earnings per share reached $2.09, up 74%, and gross margin came in at 56%.

AMD Earnings vs. Expectations

Analysts polled by LSEG had expected adjusted earnings of $1.95 per share on revenue of $13.09 billion, so AMD beat on both lines. CNBC reports that the stock climbed about 8% in extended trading, after three straight days of losses tied to wider worries about AI infrastructure spending.

The fourth quarter outlook stood out even more. AMD expects revenue of about $17 billion, plus or minus 3%, which would mean roughly 66% growth year over year. The average analyst estimate was $16.2 billion. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be around 55%, slightly below the 55.3% the Street was looking for.

Data Center Now Drives Nearly Two Thirds of Revenue

The Data Center segment brought in a record $8.55 billion, up 97% from $4.34 billion a year earlier, and now makes up about 64% of total revenue. AMD credits strong EPYC demand and the launch of its Instinct MI450 Series GPUs. The company also says Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are already running workloads on its first Helios rack-scale systems, which compete with Nvidia’s own rack designs. For context on that rivalry, see our look at the Nvidia RTX Pro 5500.

“We delivered a record quarter with revenue exceeding the high end of our guidance as Data Center segment sales nearly doubled year-over-year,” CEO Lisa Su said in the release. On the earnings call, she added that AMD has secured the wafers, substrates, packaging and memory it needs for much higher growth next year.

Gaming Slumps While PCs Hold Up

Not every segment is booming. Client and Gaming revenue fell 8% to $3.72 billion. PC processor sales rose 7% to $2.95 billion on Ryzen mobile chips, but gaming revenue dropped 40% to $773 million because of lower console chip and graphics card sales. Embedded revenue grew 29% to $1.11 billion.

The results land days after Intel’s third quarter report, which also showed strong data center growth but sent its shares sharply lower on weak guidance. AMD’s numbers suggest the AI build-out that is lifting suppliers such as Marvell and Lumentum is still accelerating, at least for now.