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On Monday, a company that was nearly bankrupt a decade ago did something only three American chip makers have ever done. Advanced Micro Devices, AMD, crossed $1 trillion in market value. The trigger was Monday's trading session. AMD shares jumped 9.6% to close at a record $613.31. At the intraday high of $61,52, the company's market value pushed past $1 trillion for the first time in its history.
To understand how extraordinary that is, go back to 2015. AMD was worth less than $2 billion. Its chips were losing to Intel. Its stock traded for pocket change, and analysts openly wondered whether the company would survive the decade. Then came Lisa Sue. She took over as chief executive in 2014 and bet the company on a single idea.
Build the fastest chips in the world and the customers will come. First came Ryzen for personal computers. Then EPYC for data centers. Then Instinct, AMD's line of AI accelerators. But the real master stroke came later. AMD stopped selling just chips and started selling complete AI systems, processors, networking gear, and hardware bundled together.
That is Nvidia's playbook and AMD is now running it too. And it is working where it matters most, the data center. Demand for AMD's server CPUs is surging as companies run AI inference on epic processors, taking share directly from Intel. The numbers tell the story. In the second quarter of 2026, AMD reported revenue of 11.54 billion, up 50% from a year ago.
Data center revenue hit 6.7 billion, up 107% and now makes up 58% of all AMD revenue. Gross margin climbed to 54% and net income nearly tripled. And the pipeline is loaded. Lisa Sue told investors last month that AMD expects to double its data center sales in 2027. Meta and OpenAI have each committed to multi-year deals to deploy up to 6 gawatt of AMD graphics processors.
When the two biggest AI builders on the planet sign up for your chips, the market listens. That is why AMD just joined one of the most exclusive clubs in business. Nvidia got there in 2023 and is now worth more than $5 trillion, the most valuable company on Earth. Broadcom followed. Micron joined in May, lifted by a global memory shortage that is still pushing up prices for everything from phones to PCs.
AMD is number four. As Thomas Hayes of Great Hill Capital put it, money is moving back into the AI trade. Monday's rally was not just AMD. Intel jumped almost 12%. Qualcomm rose 4.5% and the semiconductor index hit its highest level in over a month. But here is the tension the celebration is hiding.
AMD now trades at about 41 times forward earnings, more than double Nvidia's 16.3. The stock has nearly tripled this year, up roughly 185%. While the NASDAQ is up about 16 at this price, AMD is not being valued on what it earns today. It is being valued on a future where its 2027 targets come true. And that future just hit a speed bump on Wednesday.
Today, AMD shares slipped about 1 to 2%. And they were not alone. Nvidia, Intel, and Micron all dipped in pre-market trading. The reason investors are looking ahead to Thursday when President Trump meets China's Xiinping at the White House. Jeffrey's analysts say the talks will not deliver breakthroughs on AI chips or rare earths.
And with chip export controls on the agenda, the entire chip trade is holding its breath. So, what comes next? Thursday's summit is the near-term test. Any surprise on chip export rules could move every stock in this story. Beyond that, watch AMD's next earnings report and whether data center revenue keeps climbing toward Lisa Sue's doubling target for 2027.
Management sees the server CPU market growing 50% by 2030 to a $220 billion opportunity. If AMD is right, today's trillion could be just the beginning. For the full picture on the AI chip race, Nvidia's $5 trillion crown, and the memory shortage shaking the industry, watch our deep dive on the trillion dollar chip club next. The link is on screen and in the description.
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