Barclays resets AMD stock price target
The AI trade has spent two years being almost entirely about GPUs. Nvidia dominates that conversation, and most of Wall Street has been happy to let it. Tom O'Malley at Barclays just said that framing may be missing the next big move in semiconductors.
His argument centers on a single shift in how AI workloads are evolving , and it points directly at AMD.
What Barclays changed and what O'Malley is seeing
Tom O'Malley, a five-star analyst at Barclays ranked in the top 1% of all Wall Street stock experts, raised his price target on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to $665 from $500 on June 1, maintaining his Overweight rating, according to TipRanks. O'Malley has a 74% success rate and an average return of 105.6% over the past two years.
The raise implies approximately 29% upside from AMD's price of around $516 at the time of the note. AMD has already tripled over the past twelve months and gained 109% year-to-date, yet O'Malley believes the market is still not fully pricing in what agentic AI means for CPU demand.
The agentic AI thesis and why CPUs matter more than investors think
"CPU-to-GPU ratios are narrowing as CPU demand reaches new levels in the rapidly expanding world of agentic AI," O'Malley said. "AMD is best positioned to benefit from this transition." That is the core of the note, and it represents a meaningful departure from the way the AI chip story has been told for the past two years.
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The shift O'Malley is describing is structural. Early AI workloads were largely about training large models, a job that heavily favors GPUs. Agentic AI is different.
It involves systems that coordinate tasks, route requests, call external tools, and track multi-step workflows over extended periods. That behavior demands more from the broader compute stack, not just the accelerator layer, according to TipRanks.
O'Malley estimates that demand growth from agentic AI could help create a server CPU market approaching $200 billion by 2030. AMD, in his view, is better positioned than any rival to capture a meaningful share of that opportunity.
Why AMD and not Intel
The note is as much about relative positioning as it is about AMD in isolation. O'Malley also raised his Intel price target on June 1, but only to $100 from $65 , a target that still sits below Intel's current share price. The asymmetry is deliberate.
O'Malley cited AMD's superior products, broader portfolio coverage, and greater manufacturing flexibility as the reasons it is better placed to win as the CPU market expands. AMD CEO Lisa Su reinforced the underlying demand trend on the company's Q1 2026 earnings call. "We are seeing strong momentum as inferencing and agentic AI drive increasing demand for high-performance CPUs and accelerators," she said, according to 247 Wall St.
What AMD's valuation says about the risk
The counterargument is embedded in the same data. AMD trades at a forward P/E of 74 at current prices, with analyst targets sitting below where the stock is already trading. The stock has already priced in significant execution, which leaves little margin for error on MI450 ramp timing, hyperscaler capex cycles, or another China export shock, according to 247 Wall St.
That tension is what makes O'Malley's call notable rather than straightforward. He is arguing there is meaningful upside from a stock that has already tripled, on a thesis that requires agentic AI to become a genuine capital spending priority over the next several years.
If that timeline compresses, the $665 target looks conservative. If it stretches, the current valuation looks expensive.
Key figures from Barclays' June 1 AMD note:
- New target: $665, raised from $500; Overweight maintained; analyst Tom O'Malley, ranked top 1% on TipRanks with 74% success rate and 105.6% average return, according to TipRanks.
- AMD stock: up 109% year-to-date; tripled over the past twelve months; trading at approximately $516 at time of note; forward P/E of 74, according to 247 Wall St.
- CPU market outlook: agentic AI tasks including agent coordination, request routing, and tool-calling could create a server CPU market approaching $200 billion by 2030, TipRanks confirmed.
- Intel comparison: O'Malley also raised Intel's target to $100 from $65 on the same day, but that target sits below Intel's current share price; AMD seen as the stronger opportunity, TipRanks confirmed.
- Concurrent calls: Mizuho raised AMD to $615 from $515, Outperform; TD Cowen raised to $600 from $500, Buy , all on June 1, according to 247 Wall St.
- AMD CEO signal: Lisa Su said on the Q1 2026 earnings call: "We are seeing strong momentum as inferencing and agentic AI drive increasing demand for high-performance CPUs and accelerators," 247 Wall St. confirmed.
- Prior AMD coverage: O'Malley previously raised SanDisk and Marvell targets in the same week, part of a consistent Barclays pattern of upgrading semiconductor names tied to AI infrastructure.
What the Barclays AMD call means for the broader chip trade
O'Malley's note matters beyond AMD because of the argument it is making about the semiconductor market. The AI hardware trade has largely been framed as a single-chip story dominated by Nvidia's H100 and B200 accelerators. What O'Malley is describing is a maturing market where the entire compute stack begins to participate , CPUs, storage, networking, and systems integration alongside GPUs.
If that view is right, the next phase of the AI infrastructure trade is broader than the first. AMD is the most direct beneficiary O'Malley identifies, but the implication extends to the whole category of companies that have been waiting for the market to notice that AI requires more than one type of chip.
AMD's current price suggests the market is already partway there. O'Malley's $665 target suggests it has further to go , provided that agentic AI delivers on the infrastructure demand he is projecting. The next few quarters of enterprise AI spending data will tell you whether his timeline is right or early.
Related: Bank of America resets AMD stock price target
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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 9:33 AM.