AMD CEO Lisa Su Says AI Is In Early Stages Of Multiyear 'Supercycle': 'There's Tremendous Need For More Compute'

Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD shares are rising Wednesday after the company reported strong second-quarter financial results. Following the print, CEO Lisa Su said the chipmaker’s performance is being driven by a multiyear AI “supercycle.”

What To Know: Chip stocks sold off in recent weeks leading up to earnings season as investors began to question how long it would be before companies spending enormous amounts of money on AI would see significant return on investment.

This has created chatter that spending on AI could begin to slow, but capital expenditures have remained strong in the early part of earnings season.

Su’s comments on CNBC’s “Squawk On The Street” Wednesday may help put slowdown concerns to rest.

“From the conversations that I have with our customer set and sort of the broader industry, we can see that AI is a multiyear, you know, I would call it a supercycle frankly. There’s tremendous need for more compute,” Su said.

AMD reported second-quarter revenue of $5.835 billion and adjusted earnings of 69 cents per share, beating analyst estimates as its AI business continued to see accelerating demand. The chipmaker said on its conference call that it expects GPU revenue to exceed $4.5 billion this year, up from its prior forecast of more than $4 billion. 

Related Link: Can AMD Stock Hit $180? AI Growth Fuels Data Center Dominance Over Intel

Su noted on Wednesday that analysts and investors are “hypersensitive” to a 1% change quarter-over-quarter. She told CNBC that she doesn’t believe that’s the right way to view the AI story. In a broader context, Su suggested that demand is off the charts.

“I wouldn’t be hypersensitive in those areas … Are more customers using it? Is every enterprise asking for it? Are we seeing more applications on a daily, weekly, monthly basis? The answer to that is absolutely yes,” the chipmaker CEO said.

“Everywhere I go, everyone wants to talk about how can we incorporate AI into our businesses faster and more efficiently … this early in the cycle, there’s a lot of learning and experimentation, but definitely, there will be the return on the investment on the other side.”

Although the return on investment isn’t “instantaneous,” it’s occurring very quickly, the AMD CEO said. AI is already increasing productivity and helping companies get better products to market faster, she added.

“We’re investing today for the return in a couple of years, and I think that’s absolutely the right thing to do. That’s the way to think about these investment cycles.”

AMD Price Action: AMD shares were well off the highs of the day at publication time, up 4.68% at $144.92, according to Benzinga Pro.

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Photo: courtesy of AMD.