AMD posts a record $13.4 billion quarter and guides to $17 billion; shares jump 7% after hours

AMD reported third-quarter revenue of a record $13.38 billion, up 45% from a year earlier and 16% from the second quarter, in its results release issued at 4:15 pm ET on Tuesday. The company said revenue exceeded the high end of its guidance. Its fourth-quarter forecast is the bigger number: about $17 billion, plus or minus 3%.

In after-hours trading the stock was at about $520.10 at 4:51 pm ET, up roughly 7.5% from its $483.90 close, according to Nasdaq.com. After-hours prices are thin and can move a lot during the 5 pm ET conference call, which we have not heard.

The numbers, from AMD's release

On AMD's non-GAAP measure, operating income was $3.92 billion, a 29% margin against 24% a year ago. Operating expenses grew 29% (non-GAAP), slower than the 45% rise in revenue. That gap is what turned 45% sales growth into 74% growth in non-GAAP earnings per share.

One segment did the work

Data Center revenue was a record $8.5 billion, up 97%, which AMD attributes to its EPYC server processors and the launch of its Instinct MI450 Series GPUs. By our arithmetic that is about 64% of total revenue. In the second quarter the segment was $6.72 billion, so it grew roughly 26% in a single quarter.

• Client and Gaming: $3.7 billion, down 8%. Client was $2.9 billion, up 7%; Gaming was $773 million, down 40% on lower semi-custom and graphics revenue.
• Embedded: $1.1 billion, up 29%, led by aerospace and defense, automotive, communications and industrial customers.

The growth is concentrated. Client and Gaming fell 8% and Gaming alone fell 40%. For a reader judging AMD, the question is how long one segment keeps carrying the company.

What the $17 billion guide implies

AMD's range is roughly $16.5 billion to $17.5 billion. The midpoint is about 66% above the year-earlier quarter and about 27% above the quarter just reported, according to the company. Non-GAAP gross margin is guided to about 55%, a point below the 56% just posted. AMD did not say why in the release; a mix shift toward newer rack-scale systems would be one possible explanation, but that is our inference. CEO Lisa Su said she expects growth to accelerate as AMD scales Helios and "Venice" production.

AMD named Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as running workloads on the first Helios systems. It did not give order sizes in the release.

Where the stock stood going in

AMD closed at $483.90, up 3.65% on the day during a chip rebound after last week's selloff. Its 52-week range on Nasdaq.com is $188.22 to $658.52, which puts the close about 26% under the high. Our chart's closing-price peak was October 6, and the stock was down 25.5% from it at the close. Our AMD explainer has the background on the business and the warrants tied to its large AI customer deals, and its figures predate this quarter.

What we are watching

• Whether management gives a Helios shipment timetable or customer commitments on the call.
• The 10-Q, which will show cash, inventory and any change to the warrant arrangements.
• How after-hours trading settles against Wednesday's regular-session open. The gain is not a close.

Sources: AMD third-quarter 2026 results (ir.amd.com, November 3, 2026); Nasdaq.com quotes read at 4:51 pm ET on November 3; AMD filings on SEC EDGAR. Percentages not stated by AMD are our calculations. Some data may be delayed. This is market information, not investment advice.