OptionSir Breaks Down Hot Topics | AMD Surges Post-Earnings, Intel Continues to Hit New Highs, Is CPU Taking the Spotlight Away from Storage?

Last night (May 5), after the US stock market closed, $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ released its latest quarterly earnings, with both revenue and profit surpassing expectations, causing a 16% surge in after-hours trading. More notably, this is not an isolated case - $Intel (INTC.US)$ closed nearly 13% higher yesterday and continued to rise over 4% in after-hours trading.A collective surge among key players in the CPU sector marks a structural shift in demand for AI computing power reshaping the market landscape.

AMD delivers stunning results while Intel continues to catalyze

On May 5, after the US stock market closed, AMD announced its Q1 2025 earnings report. Its robust performance, coupled with a forward-looking view on the revolutionary growth of the AI-driven CPU market, drove the stock price to soar during after-hours trading.

In Q1 2025, AMD’s data center business revenue increased by 57% year-on-year to reach $5.8 billion. Among this, server CPU business, which directly benefited from the AI wave, hit a record high for the fourth consecutive quarter, growing more than 50% year-on-year.

CEO Lisa Su explicitly pointed out that the strong growth in server CPUs is currently 'mainly driven by shipment volume rather than price increases.' The increase in average selling price mainly comes from the migration to higher core counts and better product mix.The data center CPU market is expected to expand at an annual growth rate of over 35%, with a scale surpassing $120 billion by 2030.

This reflects the market's genuine demand for high-performance CPUs and further validates the massive spillover of AI infrastructure spending into the CPU sector.

The rise of Agentic AI is reshaping computational infrastructure. In traditional AI training scenarios, CPUs primarily serve as the 'host' for GPUs, with ratios potentially as low as 1:4 or 1:8.However, in the era of Agentic AI, the need for low-latency, high-concurrency, and strong-logic inference and agent-based scenarios has propelled CPUs from being a 'supporting player' to becoming the 'central commander' of AI computing architecture.The ratio between CPUs and GPUs/accelerators is structurally and irreversibly evolving toward nearly 1:1, directly causing an exponential increase in CPU demand.

Intel has recently experienced multiple catalysts.At the end of April, Intel's earnings significantly exceeded expectations, surging nearly 30% in a single day—a moment many fellow investors may still vividly recall.Since then, Intel has continued its strong upward momentum, even receiving personal praise from Trump (in August 2025, the US government reached an agreement with Intel to acquire approximately 10% of the company’s shares for about $8.9 billion, becoming its largest shareholder).

What drove Intel's surge yesterday was news that Apple is considering a partnership with Intel.According to Bloomberg, $Apple (AAPL.US)$ The company has held exploratory discussions about using Intel and Samsung Electronics ( $CSOP Samsung Electronics Daily (2x) Leveraged Product (07747.HK)$ ) to produce the main processors for its devices, a move that would provide Apple with an alternative option apart from its long-term partner. $Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$ Bringing Apple onto its client list would be a significant victory for Intel and might help attract more new business.

Although Intel's fundamentals have improved relatively less compared to AMD (its CPU market share is being eroded, even though the overall industry is growing rapidly), the endorsement from the U.S. government, along with foundry progress, has brought about substantial marginal improvements that have led to greater elasticity.

Why might CPUs currently be a better bet than memory?

Over the past year, memory has been the hottest segment in the AI supply chain. But looking back now, CPUs may be at the same stage memory was in several quarters ago.

First-level comparison: Different market pricing efficiencies.

Memory falls under the category of 'known knowns': price increase cycles, supply-demand gaps, and beneficiary targets have been discussed by investors for half a year, and stock prices have also risen for half a year. When SanDisk significantly raised NAND contract prices by 50% last year, although the market was shocked, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

CPUs, on the other hand, belong to the category of 'known unknowns'.Everyone already feels the pull of AI on CPUs, but how much exactly? These figures haven’t been widely modeled or discussed yet.When the market is still debating how much the price will increase, it often indicates that pricing remains inadequate.

The second layer of comparison: the sequence of price hike cycles.

Reviewing the industry rhythm: the rise in memory contract prices began in the third quarter of 2024. By mid-2025, market consensus had formed clear expectations for the full-year price increase, and by today, the market has largely priced in most of the positive factors.In contrast, the sharp rise in CPU prices only began in early 2026, a full six quarters later.

More importantly, hyperscale customers are still in the 'experimental phase' and have not yet established a standardized CPU procurement ratio.This means demand is still being explored and amplified, similar to the state at the beginning of the memory cycle where 'every quarter exceeded expectations.'

In summary, the memory market’s price, supply-demand dynamics, and profit model are relatively transparent, with high market pricing efficiency. Investment opportunities mostly arise from reassessments of cycle length and peak height. Meanwhile, the CPU market is still in the 'narrative deepening' phase—market consensus has confirmed the direction, but key quantitative benchmarks remain unanchored.This state of 'known unknowns' implies that its stock price will exhibit higher sensitivity and elasticity to future incremental information (whether earnings, prices, or competitive dynamics), while also presenting valuation reshaping opportunities driven by deeper understanding.

In fact, as early as January when price hikes were just brewing, Sir shared with fellow investors that the logic of the CPU industry was essentially a 'replica' of the memory sector:

CPU Replicates Memory Narrative! Intel Earnings Report Approaching, AMD Aiming for New Highs, Will Explosive Trends Repeat? Fellow investors who are interested can review it~

Options Strategies: How to Better Participate in This Round of Market Action

In the face of structural opportunities in the CPU market, options strategies can provide precise tools for investors with different risk appetites.

Strategy One: Covered Call – Enhancing Returns or Taking Profits Opportunistically

For investors who already hold AMD or Intel stock, a covered call is a classic strategy to enhance returns. The core of this strategy is:While holding the underlying stock, sell a corresponding number of call optionsto increase portfolio returns by collecting premiums.

For example, if you hold 100 shares of AMD stock, you can simultaneously sell one AMD call option (each contract corresponds to 100 shares).

If investors have a moderately bullish view on the medium-term trend of CPUs and believe that the stock price will not surge explosively, adopting a covered call can generate stable premium income, reduce holding costs, and perform well in volatile or mildly rising markets. However, when the stock price rises significantly, gains above the strike price will be forfeited.

(The design images displayed on screen are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute any investment advice or guarantees; market conditions fluctuate frequently, and the option prices shown do not represent real-world values.)

Strategy Two: Bull Call Spread – Moderately Bullish in High Volatility

The key characteristics of the current market environment are: frequent positive news in the CPU industry, coupled with the market’s risk appetite for AI hardware, leading to consecutive sharp rises in companies within the supply chain, driving implied volatility (IV) to generally high levels. Especially for Intel, both its IV rank and IV percentile have skyrocketed.

In this environment, the cost of directly buying call options becomes extremely expensive, at which point the Bull Call Spread highlights its structural advantages.

This involves simultaneously buying a call option with a lower strike price and selling a call option with the same expiration date but a higher strike price. The premium received from selling the higher-priced option partially offsets the cost of buying the lower-priced option, providing a 'moderately bullish' entry ticket for those on the sidelines.

Finally, here's a small perk for fellow Futubull investors, welcome to claim it.Options Beginner Pack

*This event is exclusive to invited HK users. Click to learn more.Detailed event rules>>

Market conditions are complex and volatile,Options StrategyOverwhelmed by choices? Futubull helps you build a portfolio in three steps.Options Strategymaking investing simple and efficient!

Option Risk Warning:An option is a contract that grants the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a fixed price on a specific date or at any time before that date. The price of an option is influenced by various factors, including the current price of the underlying asset, the strike price, time to expiration, and implied volatility. Implied volatility reflects the market’s expectations for the level of volatility in the option over a future period. It is a data point derived inversely from the Black-Scholes option pricing model and is generally regarded as an indicator of market sentiment. When investors anticipate greater volatility, they may be more willing to pay a higher price for options to hedge risks, resulting in higher implied volatility. Traders and investors use implied volatility to assess the attractiveness of option prices, identify potential mispricings, and manage risk exposure.

Disclaimer:This content does not constitute any offer, solicitation, recommendation, opinion, or guarantee of any securities, financial products, or tools. The risk of loss in trading options can be substantial. In some cases, losses may exceed the initial margin deposited. Even if you set contingent orders such as 'stop-loss' or 'limit' orders, these may not prevent losses. Market conditions may make such orders unexecutable. You may be required to deposit additional margin within a short period. If you fail to provide the required amount within the specified time, your open positions may be liquidated. However, you will still be responsible for any shortfall in your account. Therefore, before trading, you should study and understand options and carefully consider whether such trading is suitable for you based on your financial situation and investment objectives. If you trade options, you should be familiar with the procedures for exercising options and the rights and obligations upon exercise and expiration. Options trading carries extremely high risks and is not suitable for all investors. Investors should carefully readCharacteristics and Risks of Standardized Options。

255K Views