The current AI frenzy has made NVIDIA the darling of the semiconductor world, but it’s also expanded the entire market. I’ve been watching this unfold closely, and it’s clear that hyperscalers and enterprises haven’t just been buying NVIDIA chips — they’ve been laying down an entire new layer of infrastructure to support AI at scale. The result? A data-center GPU market that ballooned from about $17 billion in 2022 to roughly $125 billion in 2024.
NVIDIA still dominates – roughly 92% of that market – but the resulting expansion has raised all boats. In many ways, I see AMD as surfing the wave that NVIDIA created. By offering complementary chips and an open-software approach, AMD now benefits from the massive tailwinds: AI chip demand, cloud compute growth, and enterprise AI investment. This second-mover dynamic means AMD isn’t leading the charge, but it is definitely catching the momentum. You can see this clearly in the 1-year performance chart just below.
Data Center Growth: AMD’s Accelerating AI Push
AMD's been moving quickly to close the gap. Its MI300 series GPUs are now shipping in volume and starting to show up in some serious workloads. AMD reported over $1 billion in MI300X accelerator sales in Q2 2024 and raised its guidance for the rest of the year.
These GPUs are optimized for large language models and generative AI. They’re already in use by Microsoft Azure for OpenAI, who called them "the most cost-effective GPU out there right now." Meta and Oracle have both deployed them too. AMD said it shipped around 307,000 MI300X chips to the three by late 2024.
The roadmap is aggressive. AMD launched the MI325X (twice the memory of the MI300X) and has MI350 GPUs coming in 2025. These bring industry-leading memory and bandwidth. The company says 7 of the top 10 AI builders now use Instinct GPUs. That claim, paired with their open ROCm software stack, has given AMD an edge with developers looking for an alternative to NVIDIA’s closed CUDA ecosystem.
All of this builds on the momentum from AMD’s CPU business. Its 5th-gen EPYC “Turin” chips are driving record results. Q2 2025 marked the 33rd consecutive quarter of year-over-year server share growth. AMD-powered cloud instances now top 1,200 globally – including new ones from Google and Oracle. The company’s CPUs now sit in high-profile systems like NASA’s Frontier and the DOE’s El Capitan supercomputers.
Expanding the Footprint
The story isn’t just GPUs and AI. AMD’s CPU business is quietly thriving. Ryzen and EPYC processor sales hit record levels in mid-2025. On the PC side, high-performance demand is helping offset slower consumer trends.
In the cloud, AMD keeps landing wins. Google Cloud's new C4D and H4D VMs are powered by 5th-gen EPYC, with 80% more throughput than previous generations. Microsoft, Oracle, AWS, and even telcos like Nokia and KDDI are building infrastructure on AMD.
The company is also expanding into edge compute and embedded. It launched the EPYC 4005 series for SMBs and Zen5-based EPYC Embedded chips for networking and storage. Cisco and IBM are already integrating them into systems. AMD is now present from the data center to the firewall.
Gaming and Embedded: Calmer Waters
Not everything is running hot. Gaming GPUs remain a weak spot. AMD’s discrete GPU market share slipped again in 2025, with NVIDIA controlling around 94% of that space. Without a new console cycle to boost revenue, gaming and embedded sales fell sharply in 2024.
Still, AMD’s not giving up on graphics. New Radeon GPUs focused on AI workloads are on the roadmap. Console partnerships continue to deliver steady cash flows. And embedded Zen5 chips are gaining traction with enterprise partners.
When AI Outperforms the S&P 500 by 28.5%
Did you catch these stocks?
Robinhood is up over 220% year to date.
Seagate is up 198.25% year to date.
Palantir is up 139.17% this year.
AltIndex’s AI model rated every one of these stocks as a “buy” before it took off.
The kicker? They use alternative data like reddit comments, congress trades, and hiring data.
We’ve teamed up with AltIndex to give our readers free access to their app for a limited time.
The next top performer is already taking shape. Will you be looking at the right data?
Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing involves risk including possible loss of principal.
The Shadow Strategy
Let’s be clear: AMD isn’t reinventing the wheel here. NVIDIA is still far ahead. CUDA is sticky. NVIDIA’s dominance across AI accelerators is real. But AMD’s price/performance edge and open ecosystem are beginning to matter. In certain benchmarks, the MI325X matches or outpaces NVIDIA chips – and usually at a better price.
There are real execution risks. AMD has an ambitious roadmap across MI325X, MI350, MI400, and 2nm Zen5 CPUs. Any delay could stall momentum. Supply chains also remain tight. AMD is still competing with NVIDIA for TSMC capacity.
But the growth opportunity is so large, a second-mover can still thrive. The OpenAI deal and HUMAIN partnership suggest major players want diversification in their silicon. AMD’s strategy is to be the best "non-NVIDIA" option available – and right now, it's working.
Final Take
NVIDIA might have caught the wave. But AMD is riding it well.
The broader AI and infrastructure buildout has opened up space for a second player to scale meaningfully. AMD isn’t leading the charge, but it’s building a deep and diverse product stack to capitalize on the boom: from EPYC CPUs and MI300 GPUs to new embedded chips and data center designs.
For long-term investors, the story here isn’t about overtaking NVIDIA – it’s about benefiting from its success. AMD is proving there’s room to grow just by playing the follow-through.
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