A top Wall Street analyst just dropped one of the boldest calls on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), slapping an eye-popping price target in the process.
Wells Fargo’s Aaron Rakers (a 5-star analyst as per Tipranks) reiterated his Overweight rating on AMD, while setting a $345 price target (implying roughly 49% upside from current prices).
For perspective, AMD shares currently trade at $231.83, and Rakers’ price target isn’t the only one turning heads.
UBS (Timothy Arcuri): raised to $300 from $265 (Buy)—29.4% upside.
Piper Sandler (Harsh Kumar): raised to $280 from $240 (Overweight)—20.8% upside; on the back of stronger visibility in data-center and AI trajectory.
KeyBanc (John Vinh): $270 (upgrade to Overweight)—16.5% upside tied to strengthening server CPU and AI accelerator demand outlook.
Morgan Stanley: raised to $260 from $246 (Equalweight)—12.2% upside; perhaps the most measured stance compared to higher-bull targets.
Price targets like these are a breath of fresh air, and it appears that AMD stock is finally getting its due.
Having covered AMD and other AI stocks, it’s fair to say it’s sort of always playing second fiddle to Nvidia (NVDA).
That’s not surprising, though, considering Nvidia boasts a market share somewhere between 70% to 90% of the AI chip space.
However, this is about far more than chips, as Nvidia’s AI moat extends across the entire stack, reducing customers’ incentive to switch.
Nevertheless, that narrative is shifting, with AMD stock up an incredible 96% last year, beating the broader markets’ 17% gain (Nvidia stock gained 40% last year).
In the past month alone, AMD stock has returned 11%, while other AI stocks struggled.
That throws a lot more weight behind Rakers’ price targets that look otherwise aggressive. He argues that this isn’t about a single product cycle, but that AMD continues to execute across its core businesses while setting itself up for multi-year data-center and AI expansion.
Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.Photo by Bloomberg on Getty Images ·Photo by Bloomberg on Getty Images
Rakers argues that AMD will sustain its robust CPU leadership while taking market share, a dynamic that will continue to offer a durable earnings foundation.
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At the same time, he feels that AMD’s AI story is becoming increasingly tangible.
A big part of that is its stronger positioning across its data-center GPU portfolio and its broader systems strategy in catching up with Nvidia.
For perspective, AMD’s data center sales in Q3 came in at a whopping $4.3 billion (22% higher year-over-year), spearheaded by its 5th Gen EPYC and Instinct MI350 demand. What’s insane is that those data center sales contributed nearly 47% of AMD’s total Q3 sales.
Additionally, it guided Q4 sales to $9.6 billion, implying 25% year-over-year growth at the midpoint.
Hence, Rakers believes AMD’s potent roadmap is well positioned to ride through at least 2026, providing a clearer path towards materially higher earnings power in the latter half of the decade.
For much of the past decade, AMD was often overlooked because its story felt fragmented.
Related: Goldman Sachs revamps Microsoft stock price target before earnings
Sure, its MI-series GPUs (AI engines) are solid, but the company always felt like it trailed Nvidia in full-stack relevance. That’s a big part of why Nvidia sits at the center of the AI boom, and a critical part of its evolution as a chip company.
However, with AMD pushing Helios, its rack-scale AI platform, things are likely to change in a meaningful way for its business.
To understand Helios better, think of it more like a factory, which bundles together the entire project.
Previously, I felt as though AMD pitched itself as a mostly solid GPU company with often cheaper offerings than Nvidia.
Related: Nvidia CEO sends biblical-scale reality check on AI
However, with Helios, the pitch now becomes entirely different.
AMD’s now able to offer its customers the entire AI rack covering CPUs, GPUs, networking, and software at scale.
AMD CEO Lisa Su weighed in on Helio’s massive potential at the CES event.
So in essence, Helios enables AMD to:
Layer and sell CPUs, GPUs, and networking together.
Increase wallet share per deployment and benefit substantially when server CPU capacity is tight.
Attach the EPYC to the AI rack sold.
Perhaps most importantly, even if MI GPUs aren’t the performance leader, AMD stays relevant.
Related: Cathie Wood drops $50 million on AI stock, dumps favorite
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Technology section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
