Don’t pull a Noah Lyles and stare down your opponent unless you’re sure you’re ahead. For AMDAMD

, their lead over IntelINTC

is now undeniable. The two semiconductor giants have been locked in a four-decade battle over consumer electronics and cloud servers. While Intel once dominated, it might now be down for the count, and AMD is already setting its sights on its next rival: NvidiaNVDA

.

Underdog story: Back in the 2000s, AMD was on the brink of bankruptcy, mainly due to Intel’s anti-competitive tactics. But over the last seven years, AMD’s underdog status has fueled its rise. By focusing on price, value, and diversification — and by becoming the anti-Intel through selling its manufacturing arm — AMD has outpaced its rival both financially and technically. For the first time, AMD’s brand value has overtaken Intel’s, making it the 41st most valuable company by brand value according to Kantar Brandz (Nvidia ranks sixth).

• Since launching its next-gen consumer and cloud chip architectures, Zen and EPYC, in 2017, AMD has seen its annual revenues more than quadruple, reaching $23.28B over the last 12 months.
• Its market share in the consumer and server sectors has also hit record highs, with the tech innovator now holding over 23% — a clear sign of Intel’s decaying reputation.

From Struggle To Strength

Since AMD’s market cap surpassed Intel’s for the first time in Feb. 2022, the computing powerhouse has risen 24% against Intel’s 56% decline — thanks to strong execution and well-timed AI bets. However, AMD’s recent consumer launch has been riddled with issues, delaying its ninth-gen Zen processors due to quality issues. Despite a mixed reception, the focus has shifted to AMD’s AI play, which is now central to its growth.

• AMD’s AI-related sales surpassed $1B in the latest quarter and could accelerate with the launch of new AI chips and a roster of 100+ AI customers.
• Next year, the processor giant is expected to release its MI350 chip — which Piper analyst Harsh Kumar says will compete with Nvidia’s Blackwell chip lineup, its flagship AI chips.

Targeting Nvidia: Back in June, Kumar traveled to Europe with AMD’s management team and was “extremely impressed” with the company’s strategy and positioning with its AI GPUs. With a growing customer need to diversify away from Nvidia, which owns ~80% of the AI market and is set to report its widely-anticipated earnings later today, AMD’s latest product launch could be critical for its next leg of growth.