AMD Stock Crashes: What’s Driving the Sudden Sell-Off?

AMD shares are taking a nosedive today—here’s why the chip giant’s rally just hit a wall.

Market Panic or Justified Correction?

Investors are bailing fast after a shaky earnings preview hinted at softening demand. No surprises—Wall Street’s love affair with tech stocks lasts exactly until the growth slows by 0.1%.

Competition Bites Back

Rival Intel’s surprise product launch stole AMD’s thunder, sending traders scrambling. Because in semiconductors, it’s always ‘what have you done for me this nanosecond?’

The Crypto Wildcard

AMD’s GPU segment took a hit as Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake keeps crushing mining demand. Another reminder that tying your fate to crypto volatility is like using a sandcastle as a foundation.

One analyst’s ‘temporary setback’ is another’s ‘get out now’ signal. Either way—today’s bloodbath proves even blue-chip tech isn’t immune to the market’s mood swings.

Image source: Getty Images.

AMD stock is seeing big post-earnings sell-offs

With its Q2 report, AMD posted non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $0.48 on revenue of $7.69 billion. Earnings for the period matched the average Wall Street analyst estimate, and sales for the period came in $260 million better than called for by the forecast. While sales were up 31.7% year over year, investors are having a problem with the revenue composition for the period.

Sales for AMD's central processing units (CPUs) for PCs and servers and GPUs for gaming accounted for a bigger share of revenue than the market expected. Meanwhile, stronger growth for the company's AI data center GPUs has been central to valuation gains for the stock over the last few months. Investors are selling out of the stock today in response to AI GPU sales missing the mark.

What's next for AMD?

AMD is guiding for third-quarter sales to come in between $8.4 billion and $9 billion -- significantly ahead of the average analyst estimate's call for revenue of $8.32 billion in the period. Hitting the midpoint of management's guidance range WOULD mean delivering year-over-year sales growth of roughly 28%.

AMD's Q2 results and guidance for the current quarter were far from bad, but it seems sales on lower-margin CPUs are accounting for a larger-than-expected share of the company's growth. While the miss on AI GPU sales is disappointing, the stock deserves a closer look from growth investors with a long-term outlook after today's pullback.