AMD's market cap soars past US$100 billion, CPU market share could reach 50% by 2H 2021

Ever since AMD introduced the Zen architecture in 2017, team red has been steadily eating away at Intel’s market shares. All this happened under Lisa Su’s inspired leadership, and AMD really has come a long way in the last 6 years. With Intel’s recent concession caused by the delay of the 7 nm CPUs combined with AMD’s promising financial outlook implied by the 2020 Q2 earnings report, team red managed to briefly pass the US$100 billion market cap yesterday.

AMD’s share price reached a historical high of US$85.80, but the day closed at US$85.04, bringing the market cap to US$99.84 billion. This is a substantial increase from the US$55 price back in late July.  Meanwhile, Intel’s shares dropped from US$60.40 a few weeks ago to the lowest point of US$47 on July 31, yet the current price climbed slightly to US$49.13. Intel’s market cap is currently valued at US$208.95 billion, so AMD is essentially halfway there. Nevertheless, AMD's share price could still increase in the next 12 months as team red continues to roll out upgraded Zen chips. According to analyst Mark Lipacis, AMD looks poised to reach 50% CPU market share by 2H 2021.

In related news, AMD also managed to secure a continued partnership with Apple, as the Cupertino company recently announced new 27-inch desktop iMacs with upgraded Radeon Pro 5000 GPUs. Apple customers can now choose among new GPUs including the Radeon Pro 5700XT, Radeon Pro 5700, Radeon Pro 5500 XT and Radeon Pro 5300. AMD is expected to introduce the second gen Navi GPUs later this year and Apple will most likely offer those as options for next years’ refreshes.