The Zhitong Finance App learned that US chipmaker AMD (AMD.US) announced financial results for the third quarter of 2026 on Tuesday. According to the data, the company's third-quarter revenue reached US$13.377 billion, up 45% year on year and 16% month-on-month, reaching a record high. GAAP net profit reached $2,428 billion, up 95% year over year; GAAP diluted earnings per share were $1.46, up from $0.75 in the same period last year.
In non-GAAP terms, AMD's adjusted net profit for the third quarter reached US$3.471 billion, up 77% year over year; adjusted earnings per share were US$2.09, up 74% year over year, up from US$1.20 in the same period last year.
In terms of profitability, the company's GAAP gross margin for the third quarter was 54%, an increase of 2 percentage points over the same period last year; non-GAAP gross margin was 56%, which also increased 2 percentage points year over year.
GAAP operating profit for the third quarter reached US$2,832 billion, up 123% year over year, and operating margin increased to 21% from 14% in the same period last year. Non-GAAP adjusted operating profit reached US$3,923 million, up 75% year over year. The adjusted operating margin was 29%, an increase of 5 percentage points over the same period last year.
Data center business revenue nearly doubles, demand for AI chips continues to be strong
By business, AMD's data center business revenue reached a record high of US$8.546 billion in the third quarter, up 97% year on year and 27% month on month, becoming the main driving force for the company's overall performance growth. AMD said that the strong performance of the data center business was mainly driven by increased demand for EPYC server processors and the launch of the Instinct MI450 series AI accelerator.
As large technology companies continue to expand investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, AMD is accelerating the deployment of next-generation AI computing products. The company revealed that customers such as Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are running AI models and workloads on the first AMD Helios rack-scale solutions. The system uses Instinct MI450 series GPUs and sixth-generation EPYC processors.
Meanwhile, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure announced that its OCI Compute E7 cloud computing instances will use AMD sixth-generation EPYC processors. Google Cloud and Microsoft also announced that storage-optimized cloud instances based on fifth-generation EPYC processors have been officially launched.
PC business continued to grow, game business revenue fell 40% year over year
AMD's total revenue for the third quarter of the client and game business was US$3,722 million, down 8% year on year. Among them, client business revenue reached US$2,949 million, up 7% year over year, mainly driven by Ryzen mobile processor sales growth.
However, revenue from the gaming business was only US$773 million, down 40% year over year, mainly due to a decrease in revenue from semi-custom chips and graphics products.
In the embedded business, revenue in the third quarter reached US$1.09 billion, up 29% year on year, mainly due to increased demand in the aerospace and defense, automotive, communications and industrial terminal markets.
Q4 revenue is expected to reach US$17 billion, up 66% year over year
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, AMD expects revenue to be around US$17 billion, fluctuating 3%, corresponding to a range of approximately US$16.49 billion to US$17.51 billion. According to the guideline's median calculation, fourth-quarter revenue is expected to increase by about 66% year over year and increase by about 27% month on month, which means that the company expects revenue growth to accelerate further by the end of the year. AMD also estimates non-GAAP gross margin for the fourth quarter to be around 55%.
AMD Chairman and CEO Su Zifeng said that the company achieved record results in the third quarter. Revenue exceeded the upper limit of the previous guideline range, and data center business revenue nearly doubled year-on-year.
Su Zifeng pointed out that demand for Instinct and ePYC products continues to increase. As production of the Helios system and next-generation processors codenamed “Venice” expands, the company expects growth to accelerate further in the fourth quarter.
AMD Chief Financial Officer Jean Hu said that adjusted earnings per share for the third quarter increased 74% year over year, reflecting the operating leverage effect brought about by the expansion of the data center business. The company's fourth-quarter earnings outlook also reflects strong demand for the data center product portfolio.
Additionally, AMD's free cash flow for the third quarter was $554 million, down from $1,530 million in the same period last year. By the end of the third quarter, the company held a total of US$15.776 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.