Chips Retake Lead: What AMD and Nvidia Are Telling Us About AI

Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia both closed at all-time highs this past week, but the drivers differ. Nvidia’s record comes after an earlier May-to-period where the company that defined the AI trade lost momentum, and its stock is up about 28% in 2026. AMD’s shares rose nearly 200% year to date, crossing a $1 trillion market capitalization—making it the fourth U.S. chipmaker to do so. The article links AMD’s surge to real contracts, including OpenAI’s planned six-gigawatt MI450 deployment and Oracle’s commitment to 50,000 MI450 GPUs starting in Q3. It notes AMD also completed an $8.2 billion acquisition of World Labs. Nvidia’s catalyst is a massive $150 billion buyback authorization.