AMD CEO Lisa Su Defends Quarterly Performance Despite Market Selloff
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su on Wednesday, February 4, presented a robust defense of her company's quarterly financial performance, maintaining an optimistic outlook even as investors reacted negatively, erasing approximately 16% from the semiconductor giant's market valuation.
Stock Plunge Follows "Soft" First-Quarter Forecast
Despite AMD reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, the company's shares experienced a significant downturn. This market reaction was primarily triggered by the first-quarter revenue forecast, which many Wall Street analysts characterized as "soft" given the current explosive growth trajectory in artificial intelligence technology.
In an interview with CNBC, Su projected confidence, emphasizing that the internal business momentum remains substantially stronger than what the current market response indicates. She addressed concerns about AMD's competitive position against industry leader Nvidia directly, asserting that demand for AI computing solutions is accelerating at an unprecedented pace.
"AI Is Accelerating at Unimaginable Pace"
"What I would tell you from someone on the inside is AI is accelerating at a pace that I would not have imagined," Su declared during the discussion. She revealed that during the last quarter, AMD witnessed a remarkable "step up" in demand within its data center business segment.
Su specifically highlighted the performance of AMD's Central Processing Units (CPUs), describing their adoption for enterprise AI workloads as "going gangbusters." This strong uptake demonstrates the company's expanding footprint in the critical AI infrastructure market.
Revenue Projections and Analyst Expectations
AMD projected revenue between $9.5 billion and $10.1 billion for the coming quarter, with a midpoint of $9.8 billion. While this figure slightly exceeded the consensus analyst estimate of $9.38 billion, it nevertheless disappointed many market observers who had anticipated a more aggressive outlook given the AI boom.
The company secured several high-profile "megadeals" in late 2025, including significant infrastructure partnerships with leading AI research organization OpenAI and cloud computing giant Oracle. These strategic alliances position AMD for future growth in the enterprise AI space.
Helios AI System: The Anticipated Turning Point
Looking ahead, Su identified the second half of 2026 as a potential turning point for AMD, with expectations building around the launch of Helios. This new integrated server-scale AI system represents AMD's ambitious entry into the competitive rack-scale solutions market.
The Helios system is specifically engineered to compete directly with existing integrated solutions, offering enterprises a more streamlined and efficient approach to deploying massive AI computing clusters. This innovation could significantly enhance AMD's competitive positioning in the rapidly evolving AI hardware landscape.
Despite the immediate market volatility, Su's comments reflect a long-term strategic vision focused on capitalizing on the accelerating AI revolution through technological innovation and strategic partnerships.
