# AMD Forecasts Historic Revenue Lead Over Intel Amid AI Surge AMD projects $17 billion in Q4 revenue, surpassing Intel's forecast on data center demand. - **Source:** [Latest from TechRadar](https://www.techradar.com/feeds.xml) - **Published:** 2026-11-10 - **Topic:** [Business](https://brifing.si/c/business) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/4fd1e3ba-cd4d-49ca-b593-6bf574984976 ## Historic Revenue Crossover AMD projects Q4 2026 revenue of approximately $17 billion, potentially exceeding Intel’s forecast of $15 to $16 billion. This milestone marks the first time in their decades-long rivalry that AMD would generate more raw revenue in a single quarter. The shift reflects a fundamental change in the semiconductor industry's competitive landscape. ## Data Center Dominance AMD’s data center segment revenue surged 97% to a record $8.5 billion in Q3, now accounting for 64% of total sales. Operating margins in this segment expanded to 34%, driven by the initial shipments of Instinct MI455X accelerators and Helios racks. Major hyperscalers including Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI are primary adopters. ## Volume Versus Value While AMD leads in revenue, Intel maintains a significant advantage in volume, shipping roughly two-thirds of all x86 CPUs as of Q2 2026. AMD’s financial lead is primarily fueled by high-value AI hardware rather than traditional processor dominance. The revenue gap is widening due to the rapid scaling of specialized AI infrastructure. ## Operational Challenges Intel’s Q4 outlook incorporates a $300 million revenue impact following an October 14 explosion at its Fab 28 facility in Israel. The incident resulted in two fatalities and a two-week plant shutdown, affecting 10nm server product output. Despite this, Intel’s data center group reported a 78% growth during the third quarter. ## Segment Performance Divergence AMD’s performance remains mixed across other divisions, with gaming revenue falling 40% to $773 million due to weaker console chip demand. Conversely, the embedded segment grew 29% to $1.1 billion. AMD anticipates a double-digit decline in client and gaming segments for Q4, offset by a projected 50% sequential jump in data center. ## Supply and Capacity Constraints CEO Lisa Su confirmed that demand for AMD’s AI hardware currently exceeds supply capacity. To manage this, AMD has increased inventory by $3 billion to $11.5 billion, impacting free cash flow, which stood at $554 million. The company is prioritizing AI-focused capacity expansions over consumer chip production for the coming year. ## Strategic AI Shift Q4 will mark the first period where AMD’s data center AI business, specifically Instinct GPUs and racks, outsells its server CPUs. AMD expects data center sales to constitute over 80% of total revenue by 2027. This transition underscores the industry's pivot toward specialized accelerators over general-purpose computing hardware for enterprise. ## Long-term Market Implications The projected crossover highlights how AI-driven infrastructure is reshaping chipmaker valuations. While Intel remains a dominant force in x86 architecture, AMD’s aggressive expansion into racks and accelerators has accelerated its growth trajectory. Future success depends on maintaining supply chain stability and meeting the high-performance demands of major frontier AI labs. ## Sources covering this story - https://www.techradar.com/pro/amd-says-it-will-outsell-intel-for-the-first-time-in-its-history-as-epyc-and-instinct-sales-soar-on-ai-demand — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._