AMD stock closes at a record $633.91 as its Nvidia challenge gets real

Vultr committed $1.2B to HPE's AMD Helios AI Rack, deploying 72-GPU systems in U.S. data centers. HPE, AMD, and Broadcom collaborated on the rack-scale design. Vultr, a private cloud infrastructure company, aims to meet high AI infrastructure demand. The racks feature AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs, EPYC CPUs, and HPE's networking and cooling solutions. Microsoft also plans to scale Helios on Azure.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) agreed to acquire World Labs, led by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, for $8.2B in an all-stock deal. Rosenblatt reiterated its Buy rating and $700 price target, citing expanded AI capabilities. The acquisition may dilute shares and carries integration risks. AMD's stock has gained 180% YTD, with Q2 revenue up 50% YoY to $11.5B and EPS up 156% to $1.38.

Nvidia (NVDA) stock briefly reached a record high of $237 before closing at $233 on Friday, driven by investor focus on AI spending ahead of earnings season. The company announced a $150 billion share buyback program, adding to an existing $80 billion plan. Analysts expect Nvidia's revenue to grow 90% this year to $411 billion, with a forward P/E ratio of 24. Key competitors and clients, including AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and Alphabet, will report earnings this month.

NVIDIA's tokenized stock on Robinhood rose to $235, with trading volume up 42% in 24 hours. The company's shares reached a 52-week high of $236.59, up 2.5%, driven by strong quarterly results. Revenue increased 105.9% year over year, and EPS exceeded expectations. NVIDIA declared a $0.25 quarterly dividend and approved a $150 billion share repurchase plan. Analysts remain bullish, with Morgan Stanley setting a $300 target price.

Amazon is reportedly in talks to move $8 billion worth of NVIDIA Grace Blackwell chips into a special purpose vehicle, financing them through debt sales and leasing them back. This move aims to protect Amazon's credit rating and manage its capital expenditures, which totaled $54.2 billion in Q2. NVIDIA is also exploring similar financing structures for AI infrastructure, with $279 billion in supply commitments.

Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) shares fell 4.2% premarket after Nvidia unveiled its N1X PC processor, competing with their core PC business. Intel also launched its Xeon 6+ server chips, but Nvidia's announcement overshadowed it. Nvidia's move threatens the x86 duopoly in Windows PCs.