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AMD

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Deal Expert
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Mar 14, 2009
16760 posts
8093 upvotes

AMD

Let me preface this thread by saying that I am not an investor and I know little to nothing about stocks or the financial system in general. However I have been a tech enthusiast for close to 30 years now and I like to think I know a fair bit about computer hardware and whatnot. My opinion for what it's worth is that it's a fantastic time to buy some AMD stock right now. I say this because Intel, the market leader, has reportedly completely failed to transition to the new 10nm node to the point that they are not able to produce any meaningful quantity of processors using the new process. This means that they are unable to produce their upcoming chips, and their current 14nm node has no capacity left as a result. Further to this, their CEO resigned in a scandal and also their processors were affected by a series of horrible security breaches.

AMD, OTOH, is firing on all cylinders. They were able to poach a mad genius named Jim Keller who designed their current processors from the ground up. These Ryzen chips are quite good but they don't clock as high as the Intel chips despite having similar per core and per clock performance. Now, take this with a grain of salt because this is based on rumors and nothing is confirmed. But from what I gather AMD has decided to skip the 10nm node completely and they are going straight to 7nm. Apple recently released their new iPhones with the A12 processor built on this new 7nm node. So far so good and it will be receiving widespread industry adoption shortly.

The point is that AMD looks like they will have new processors on a new node whereas Intel will be in a really bad situation with their 10nm process in ruin. I'm also hearing, and again this is rumors, but they are saying that the new 7nm Ryzen chips will clock to 4.5ghz with 10-15% more IPC. That basically means that AMD is poised to take the performance crown away from Intel. This is a really big deal. AMD is also much less affected by the security breaches that are currently plaguing Intel. And AMD appears to have a *great* CEO.

I'm considering buying some of this stock myself. Do you guys have any suggestions in terms of that? I have used TD before and I liked them. But I'm wondering if there are better/cheaper options that RFD recommends. Any info would be great. Thanks!
2 replies
Deal Expert
Jan 27, 2006
21844 posts
15619 upvotes
Vancouver, BC
I've been a relatively long term share holder of AMD and all of those things you brought up is true. But there's a few things that you didn't bring up that has affected the recent share price:

1. There are fears that INTEL would not be able to meet their delivery targets for their processors. The current news is that INTEL contracted out to TSMC to make them so that they can make up for their current short falls. And guess who makes the A12 7nm chip for Apple? TSMC. I'm not saying that INTEL will partner with TSMC for the next gen chip but the relationship is there....
2. INTEL currently doesn't have a permanent CEO so there's a bit of lack of direction from the top at INTEL at this point in time. AMD has a relatively small window to work with while INTEL gets it's house in order.
3. AMD's recent price action along with semiconductor stocks in general hasn't been good. Sure AMD has shown a high level of out performance compared to other chip stocks but the feelings towards the sector is currently negative. Heck, even NVDA has been feeling some heat with recent price declines.
4. INTEL has billions of dollars at it's disposal so the ideal of AMD taking the crown away from them is laughable at this point in time. For all of INTEL's warts, INTEL is still the go to product for the vast majority of corporate end-users with AMD being 'interesting' but not interesting enough to bet the server farm on... yet.
5. As for security issues, I wouldn't place AMD on such a high pedestal yet. The most likely reason AMD seems to be much less affected by security breaches is that the AMD market share is soooo small so hackers aren't necessarily targeting them to find those issues at this point in time.

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