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AMD stock fell by 9% in early premarket trading on Wednesday after investors focused on the company’s first-quarter outlook, not its fourth-quarter beat. The forecast landed below some “whisper” expectations tied to the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) spending cycle.
Advanced Micro Devices reported fourth-quarter revenue of $10.27 billion, above analyst estimates compiled by LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group). Still, the stock reaction showed how tightly the market now grades guidance for AI-linked chipmakers.
AMD posted adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.53 on revenue of $10.27 billion for the quarter ended in December. Analysts had expected $1.32 in adjusted EPS and $9.67 billion in revenue, according to LSEG data.
However, AMD guided first-quarter revenue to about $9.8 billion, plus or minus $300 million. That range implies a sequential decline from the fourth quarter, even as AI infrastructure budgets remain elevated.
Some investors expected a larger uplift as AMD sells data-center accelerators and server processors into AI buildouts. Consequently, the guidance became the central point of the earnings reaction, despite the headline beat.
Management said results included shipments of AMD Instinct MI308 products into China, and the company also pointed to items tied to inventory reserves. Reportedly, roughly $390 million of AI chip sales to China in the quarter, which changed how some analysts viewed the size of the beat versus expectations.
In a televised interview, Chris Rolland of Susquehanna International Group said on CNBC that expectations were “sky high.” He also said the China revenue was not in “street numbers,” which reduced the apparent upside once investors adjusted for it.
Meanwhile, AMD’s own outlook for the first quarter included about $100 million of MI308 sales to China. The company flagged U.S. export controls as a factor in recent periods, and those restrictions can add uncertainty to forward demand signals.
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AMD said fourth-quarter data center revenue reached $5.4 billion, up 39% from a year earlier. The company attributed growth to EPYC server central processing units (CPUs) and Instinct graphics processing units (GPUs), which help train and run AI models.
Client and gaming revenue rose 37% to $3.9 billion, while embedded revenue increased 3% to $950 million. Those segments add breadth, but the market’s attention stayed on AI accelerators and data center momentum.
The company’s longer-term AI narrative includes its OpenAI partnership. In October 2025, both firms stated that the AI giant will deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs over multiple years, starting with an initial 1-gigawatt rollout in the second half of 2026.
