Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) has become one of the more notable comeback stories in recent years. Left for dead in the middle of the last decade, it has become a leader in CPU, GPU, and embedded chips under the leadership of CEO Lisa Su.
With it making advancements in the AI field, AMD stock is on an upward trajectory, rising 127% in 2023. However, determining whether the semiconductor stock can mint millionaires from here requires a closer look.
The state of AMD
AMD stock has benefited from a tremendous level of success under Su and has the potential to go much higher. When Su took over in 2014, she limited the company’s focus to CPUs and GPUs. Since product development timelines in the semiconductor industry take at least three years, Su’s vision took time to bear fruit.
Nonetheless, in that time, the company’s CPUs surpassed the performance of those of longtime rival Intel. In the GPU field, it won contracts to power Sony‘s PlayStation and Microsoft‘s Xbox. Additionally, its GPUs have helped it gain traction on Nvidia in some cases, and helped its data center technologies take market share from Intel.
Moreover, just when it looked like Nvidia would dominate AI chips, AMD released its Instinct MI300A accelerator chip and the MI300X GPU, which AMD claims is a faster chip than Nvidia’s H100.
These new offerings have stoked investor optimism, taking the semiconductor stock to 52-week highs in late December. Over the last year, AMD stock has more than doubled.
Why minting millionaires from here may be a struggle
Unfortunately, turning small investors into millionaires would take a level of growth beyond the imaginations of many. With AMD’s recovery, its market cap has reached almost $220 billion, taking it into mega-cap status.
If an investor bought $10,000 worth of AMD stock today, the market cap would have to reach nearly $22 trillion for that position to become $1 million. Currently, the stock with the highest market cap, Apple, has a market cap of around $3 trillion, less than one-seventh that amount.
Also, AMD’s financials would have to make considerable improvements to send the stock into hyperdrive. In the third quarter of 2023, its revenue of $5.8 billion grew 4% year over year, compared with a 9% yearly decline for revenue in the first three quarters of the year.
AMD’s revenue growth should improve. Still, even if it can find a way to match Nvidia’s 206% revenue growth in its third quarter of fiscal 2023 (ended Oct. 29), it will likely not make recent investors with only a few thousand to invest into millionaires .
Millionaire status is more reachable for large investors who bought the stock on Oct. 8, 2014, the day Su became AMD’s CEO. If you’d started a $10,000 position then, it would be worth approximately $414,000 today, meaning if the stock jumps another 127% in 2024, those investors’ original investment would be close to $1 million.
AMD as a millionaire maker
Although AMD can probably help an investor make money on the road to becoming a millionaire, it has probably grown too large to accomplish that feat on its own for small investors. As a mega-cap stock, it is unlikely to achieve the 100-fold or more increases needed to turn $10,000 into $1 million.
Nonetheless, AMD’s performance has far exceeded that of the indexes during Su’s time at the company. Given past successes, that trend is likely to continue. Hence, even if one cannot become a millionaire, an investor could become significantly richer with a long-term investment in AMD stock.
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Will Healy has positions in Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Intel and recommends the following options: long January 2023 $57.50 calls on Intel, long January 2025 $45 calls on Intel, and short February 2024 $47 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Could AMD Stock Help You Become a Millionaire? was originally published by The Motley Fool
