Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) hosts its Advancing AI event in San Francisco on July 22-3, and Jefferies expects a busy day. Analyst Blayne Curtis, who has a “Buy” rating and a $615 price target, thinks AMD will raise its estimate of the total market for its processors past $200 billion. He expects fresh details on the MI500 chips due after the current generation. The part investors will be keen on watching is the customer list. The analyst believes Microsoft (MSFT) is signed up for the MI450. There are also growing talks of a deal with Anthropic, which has reportedly been hiring engineers familiar with AMD’s software.
The reason a new customer matters so much comes down to how AMD won the last two. To land OpenAI and Meta Platforms (META), each committing to six gigawatts of chips, AMD handed both companies warrants to buy up to 160 million shares. Combined, AMD has promised away about a fifth of itself to secure those orders.