Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) has had a breakout 2025 – shedding its reputation as an AI laggard by widening its AI-focused product lineup, securing meaningful hyperscaler design wins with OpenAI and Oracle, and delivering strong growth in AI-driven data-center revenue.
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As the semi giant heads into the quiet holiday period, Piper Sandler 5-star analyst Harsh Kumar sat down with management for a webinar to walk through what AMD has coming next and how it plans to carve out its place in the AI landscape.
“We walked away comfortable with the company’s near and midterm catalysts, as well as its position to execute on their key impending technical targets, such as the MI300 series ramp and technical traction for launch of the MI400 series,” says Kumar, who’s ranked 9th among the thousands of Wall Street stock experts.
Among several takeaways, Kumar said the company highlighted performance and TCO (total cost of ownership) as the primary drivers of incremental customer wins across silicon, networking, and software. Management pointed to an approximately 10x performance increase from MI355 to MI450 and indicated that the MI550 should deliver ‘multiples of performance, not just percentage gains.’ As such, the company expects multiple multi-GW engagements to materialize in the MI450 timeframe. It also reiterated confidence in reaching a double-digit percentage share of the TAM, supported by further GW-scale announcements, which Kumar said would strengthen his view of the company’s technical roadmap.
On Helios rack execution, management acknowledged that designing and delivering rack-level systems is a difficult task. AMD does not plan to sell Helios directly; instead, it will license reference designs to OEMs and ODMs while providing the core silicon. The company pointed to its acquisition of the ZT Systems engineering team, which now exceeds 1,200 engineers and previously designed the first H100 systems used to train the initial ChatGPT models. Management also noted that moving to a double-wide rack enables higher density, shortens cable lengths, and improves signal integrity.
In some respects,” Kumar noted, “being a fast follower in the market has had its advantages, allowing AMD to incorporate feedback on the rack in advance.”
Regarding ROCm software status and adoption, AMD said the platform is “significantly more mature” than it was a year ago, supported by the Xilinx acquisition and the addition of software teams including Nod.AI, Brium, and Lamini. Management noted that the company is now ‘deeply engaged’ with major model developers, allowing customer models to “run near day zero,” and pointed to the success of ROCm 7 alongside MI355. That said, looking ahead, Kumar noted that MI450 and Helios will require a new version of the ROCm software stack.
As for the China issue, management indicated that the situation remains largely unchanged, with a dynamic environment and continued pressure on sales for multiple reasons. “In our view,” Kumar said, “this is totally geopolitical in nature and outside of the control of AMD.”
So, down to the nitty-gritty, what does this all ultimately mean for investors? Kumar assigns AMD shares an Overweight (i.e., Buy) rating, backed by a $280 price target. After a year marked by a 66% surge, Kumar’s target leaves room for an additional 39% gain over the next 12 months. (To watch Kumar’s track record, click here)
The Street’s average target is only slightly higher, landing at $282.39, and suggesting the stock will climb 40.5% higher in the months ahead. All told, based on a mix of 29 Buys vs. 9 Holds, the analyst consensus rates AMD stock a Strong Buy. (See AMD stock forecast)
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.