Two bullish bets on AMD in two weeks: Is there more upside left in AI? | Smart Money Options Strategy

With the opening of COMPUTEX 2026 in Taipei, AI infrastructure has once again become a focal point for markets. Since the stock bottomed near $203 on March 31, $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ The stock has surged more than 150%, making it one of the strongest performers in the current AI rally. However, during Monday’s trading session, investor attention was primarily focused on AI favorites such as NVIDIA, $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$and$Micron Technology (MU.US)$ , and AMD's performance appeared relatively muted amid concerns over NVIDIA’s potential competitive threat as it enters the AI PC market.

However, a large institutional bullish options trade exceeding $100 million emerged in AMD.

On Monday, a trader simultaneously bought 2,000 July 2026 call options with a $520 strike price and sold 2,000 July 2026 put options with the same $520 strike price. Both legs were marked as opening transactions, floor trades, and part of a multi-leg strategy executed at the same time, strongly indicating they formed a newly established institutional position.

This is not a typical outright call purchase but rather a classic Wall Street strategy— a synthetic long strategyBy buying calls and selling puts with the same strike price and expiration date, the trader effectively constructed a position highly similar to directly holding AMD shares. Based on contract size, this trade equates to approximately 200,000 shares of AMD, with a notional value exceeding $100 million.

Unlike simply buying calls, selling puts means the trader is willing to assume downside risk comparable to actually owning the underlying stock. As such, this structure is typically viewed as a stronger bullish signal.

At the time of the trade, AMD’s share price was around $510, making the $520 strike price nearly at-the-money. More importantly, these options expire on July 17—less than two months away—suggesting the trader is betting that momentum in AI infrastructure will continue strengthening in the weeks following COMPUTEX.

Click hereView AMD options

Notably, this is not the first large bullish AMD options trade seen recently.

Last week, another institutional investor established a sizable September 2026 $520/$620 call spread position, implying approximately 25% upside potential from the prevailing price at the time. While that trade capped gains above $620, the newly established synthetic long position offers unlimited upside and more closely resembles direct stock ownership.

Taken together, these two trades indicate that despite AMD’s share price surging more than 150% since late March, institutional investors remain confident that its AI-driven rally is not yet over.

One of the most anticipated themes at this year’s COMPUTEX is the next phase of AI infrastructure development. AMD is expected to showcase its next-generation Helios AI rack-scale systems, MI400-series AI accelerators, and the latest EPYC processors. As AI models continue to scale, customer spending is shifting from individual GPUs toward complete AI system solutions—a space where AMD is making significant strategic investments.

Meanwhile, AMD CEO Lisa Su recently stated that global CPU demand has significantly exceeded industry expectations and could remain strong for the next five years. She believes that rapid growth in AI inference and agentic AI is once again making CPUs a critical component of modern AI infrastructure.

This means AMD stands to benefit not only from rising demand for AI GPUs but also from increased adoption of server CPUs. As one of the few companies capable of offering both CPUs and GPUs alongside comprehensive AI platform solutions, AMD is increasingly emerging as a key beneficiary of the current AI infrastructure investment cycle.

Perhaps most notably, this trade was executed not after a significant pullback, but following AMD’s more than 150% rebound from its March lows. Rather than taking profits, institutional investors appear to have further increased their exposure through an at-the-money synthetic long structure.

For investors, this signal is hard to ignore. While the market continues chasing the day’s strongest-performing AI-related stocks, smart money seems to be positioning early for AMD’s next leg up. If AI infrastructure spending continues to accelerate, AMD could become one of the most compelling beneficiaries in the next phase of AI build-out.

Click herefor more unusual options activity.

Disclaimer: Options trading involves substantial risk and is not suitable for all clients. Investors should be sure to read the relevant documents Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options Before implementing any options trading strategy, investors should be aware that opening new options positions near or on the expiration date carries a significant risk of loss due to factors such as potential volatility in the underlying security and limited time to expiration. Options trading is generally complex and may result in the loss of the entire investment in a relatively short period. Certain complex options strategies carry additional risks, including potential losses exceeding the initial investment amount. Where applicable, supporting documentation for any claims will be provided upon request.

180K Views