The company expects the expansion of these systems to again boost data center revenues, with a projected growth of nearly 50% compared to the previous quarter. Optimism also reached infrastructure providers like CoreWeave and Nebius, whose stocks rose during the day, according to CNBC.
For the fourth quarter, AMD projected a gross margin of 55%. Its revenue guidance allows for a variation of plus or minus 3% and, at its midpoint, implies a year-over-year growth of 66% and a 27% improvement over the previous quarter.
Video games decline while personal computers advance
Not all businesses kept the same pace. The client and video game segment generated USD 3.700 billion, an 8% year-over-year decrease. Revenues from video games fell by 40%, to USD 773 million, due to lower sales of custom chips and graphics products.
In contrast, Ryzen processors for laptops drove a 7% growth in the PC business, which reached USD 2.900 billion. The embedded systems division generated USD 1.100 billion, a 29% increase.
Projections for 2027 and financial position
Su anticipated that total revenues will grow more than 80% in 2027, above the 77% estimated by LSEG analysts. CFO Jean Hu noted that data centers would account for more than 80% of sales, while Su projected that server revenues would double.
AMD closed September with USD 15.800 billion in cash and short-term investments and USD 7.100 billion in debt, including USD 4.750 billion in bonds issued in August. Additionally, it expects to complete the announced acquisitions of World Labs and Taalas during the fourth quarter, subject to the necessary approvals.
AMD reported historic results in the third quarter of 2026 and projected revenues of approximately USD 17 billion for the period from October to December, above the USD 16.230 billion expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG. The company thus consolidates its progress in the artificial intelligence infrastructure market, where it seeks to expand its presence against Nvidia.
Quarterly sales reached a record USD 13.377 billion, a 45% increase from the USD 9.246 billion of the same period in 2025. The adjusted earnings per share were USD 2.09, compared to the USD 1.95 expected, while net accounting profit increased by 95%, reaching USD 2.428 billion. Following the announcement, shares rose about 8% in after-hours trading.
Data centers explain the growth
Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, described the quarter as the largest and most profitable in the company's history. Revenues even exceeded the upper end of the forecast that the manufacturer had released.
The data center segment generated USD 8.546 billion, a 97% increase from the USD 4.341 billion a year ago and above the USD 8.200 billion estimated by the market. Its share of total revenue rose from 47% to 64%.
The demand for EPYC processors for servers and the launch of the Instinct MI450 graphics accelerators accounted for much of the jump. According to Su, sales of servers for public cloud providers and enterprises more than doubled, surpassing the over 80% growth that AMD had anticipated.
Helios and the bet on artificial intelligence infrastructure
AMD reported that Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are already running models and workloads on the first Helios systems, integrated server installations designed for artificial intelligence.
