Advanced Micro Devices delivered a record quarter on Tuesday, reporting third-quarter 2026 revenue of $13.38 billion, up 45% from a year ago and ahead of Wall Street expectations, as its data center business nearly doubled and the company forecast an even stronger finish to the year.

Data center segment revenue hit a record $8.5 billion, up 97% year over year, driven by strong demand for AMD EPYC processors and the launch of AMD Instinct MI450 Series GPUs, according to the company’s earnings announcement. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.09 per share, beating the $1.95 analysts expected. The data center segment now accounts for 64% of AMD’s total sales, up from 47% a year ago, a milestone in AMD’s transformation into a data center-first company.

“We delivered a record quarter with revenue exceeding the high end of our guidance as Data Center segment sales nearly doubled year-over-year,” said Lisa Su, AMD chair and CEO.

Beating the Street, guiding higher

AMD expects fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $17 billion, plus or minus 3%, comfortably above the average analyst estimate of $16.23 billion compiled by LSEG. The company guided to an adjusted gross margin of about 55%, compared with 56% in the third quarter. Shares rose around 7% in after-hours trading, Reuters reported.

Quote from AMD CEO Lisa Su on record third quarter results

What drove the growth

The story is the AI infrastructure build-out. Demand for the GPUs and CPUs that power data center servers training and running AI models is pulling AMD’s results upward, as enterprises shift AI workloads from experimentation to real-world deployment. Production shipments of the MI450 and Helios systems began in September, with a larger ramp expected in the fourth quarter, according to Susquehanna.

AMD’s design-win momentum underpins the numbers. OpenAI agreed in October 2025 to deploy up to six gigawatts of AMD accelerators, and Meta followed in February 2026 with an agreement for up to six gigawatts of its own. The results also reflect AMD’s July 2026 agreement with Anthropic to deploy up to two gigawatts of Instinct MI450 GPUs.

The rest of the business

Client and gaming segment revenue was $3.7 billion, down 8% year over year, missing estimates. Within it, client revenue rose 7% to $2.9 billion on sales of Ryzen mobile processors, while the gaming portion dragged. On a GAAP basis, AMD reported net income of $2.4 billion and diluted EPS of $1.46.

One notable drag: AMD recorded a $1.1 billion accounting charge in the quarter tied to its megadeal with OpenAI last year, mostly offset by an income tax provision, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Why it matters

AMD remains far behind Nvidia in the data center GPU market, but the quarter shows the company converting its AI infrastructure deals into profitable volume, the exact question investors had going into the print. With the MI450 ramp accelerating into 2027 and Q4 guided above consensus, AMD’s challenge to Nvidia’s dominance of the AI semiconductor market is gaining measurable momentum.

Key AMD third quarter 2026 financial figures

Sources