Morgan Stanley Raises AMD Price Target to $360 from $255; Meta 6GW Deployment and Oracle Orders Confirmed

Up 59% YTD, 245% 1-year return… Meta 6GW deployment, Oracle orders, Q1 data center revenue expected at $5.6B

Morgan Stanley raised AMD's price target to $360 from $255 on May 5, a 41% increase announced on the day of AMD's Q1 earnings release. The upgrade is part of a broader semiconductor sector revision that also lifted price targets for GlobalFoundries, IonQ, Microchip Technology, and Navitas.

AMD stock is up 59% year-to-date with a 1-year return of 245%. Morgan Stanley's $360 target significantly exceeds the BofA consensus of $310, reflecting the strongest conviction on AMD among Wall Street analysts.

Three Key Earnings Watch Points

Wall Street consensus for Q1 expects revenue of ~$9.8B (matching AMD guidance), adjusted EPS of $1.28–$1.30 (up 33% YoY), non-GAAP gross margin of ~55%, and data center revenue of ~$5.6B (up 52% YoY).

Three factors will determine the post-earnings stock direction.

First, whether data center revenue reaches the $5.6B target. This figure determines whether the market views AMD as a serious contender in the AI chip race.

Second, whether Q2 revenue guidance exceeds Wall Street expectations of $10.5B–$10.8B. Guidance above this range will trigger immediate stock reaction.

Third, management commentary on Instinct MI350 and MI450 production schedules. These product lines will determine AMD's competitive position in H2 2026.

Meta 6GW, Oracle, Zyphra — Real Deployments, Not Pilots

The strongest evidence that AMD's AI chip business is gaining real traction is the scale of partnerships.

Meta has deployed AMD MI450 GPUs at a 6-gigawatt scale. Oracle has placed orders for AMD accelerators. AI cloud platform Zyphra launched a new platform based on AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs. These are large-scale enterprise deployments, not pilot programs or small-scale tests. This is the foundation for analyst forecasts of 60%-plus data center revenue growth in 2026.

Server CPU offerings are equally strong. The EPYC processor lineup continues to gain market share in data center workloads, providing a more stable revenue base with lower volatility than GPUs.

Lisa Su Meets Commerce Secretary Lutnick

In late April, AMD CEO Lisa Su met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to discuss AI and U.S. technology leadership. This signals that AMD is now a key player at the table in discussions about America's AI competitiveness, not merely a semiconductor vendor.

AMD also announced its 'Advancing AI 2026' event in San Francisco on July 23, signaling intent to lead the AI narrative through the remainder of the year.

On the product front, AMD is strengthening its presence in the AI PC market with the launch of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, the first dual-processor featuring 3D V-Cache technology.