Jeff Pu
Technology Equity Analyst at GF Securities
Nvidia, AMD and Intel benefit as agentic AI drives server CPU demand, highlighted by Akamai's $11.6bn, seven-year accelerating CPU agreement with Anthropic, with a potential $9bn expansion. Anthropic will run growing CPU workloads on Akamai's distributed AI infrastructure, where Nvidia has flagged Vera CPU deployments built for code, orchestration and data processing. Server CPU TAM is estimated at $215bn by 2030, with positive read-throughs to DRAM, NAND and ABF substrates. x.com
Memory headwinds flagged in GF Securities (Hong Kong)'s July 2 note deserve a fresh look as DRAM buyers resist price hikes. Per GF's monthly call, customers are pushing back strongly against DRAM price increases near 30%, so GF slightly lowered its Q3 DRAM price growth forecast. GF is more positive on NAND, as KV-cache offloading demand beats expectations and cheaper NAND increasingly substitutes for DRAM. x.com
Enterprise and neocloud demand is creating a second wave of AI infrastructure spending, with tailwinds for Nvidia and Super Micro. Dell forecasts 200 GW of AI data center growth through 2030, half driven by these customers, and estimates a $1 trillion AI infrastructure opportunity over the next four years. AI servers could enter a new growth phase in 2027, with higher shipment volumes and more revenue per deployment. x.com
AI data-center spending should reach chips first, then racks, power and cooling, benefiting Nvidia, AMD, Vertiv, Bloom Energy, Credo, Marvell, Lumentum and Micron. BofA forecasts the global data-center market at about $1T in 2026, $2.1T in 2028 and nearly $3T by 2030, a 37% annual rise; roughly 80% of a new AI site's $57M per MW cost goes to servers, networking and storage. x.com
Intel and AMD face a real shift in competition as NVIDIA moves into CPUs faster and more directly than expected. On NVIDIA's earnings call, Jensen Huang said its new Vera CPU platform will contribute $20 billion of standalone revenue this year. The pressure on Intel and AMD is not just fund rotation but a genuine change in the competitive landscape. x.com
AI agents are pushing server CPU demand far beyond current supply, making Arm, AMD and Intel CPUs one of the most attractive ways to get exposure to agentic AI. At about 10 agents per CPU, one agent for each of 100 million US knowledge workers needs 10 million CPUs, and 10 agents each for 1 billion users globally needs 1 billion, about 20x the world's 35-45 million annual server CPU output. AMD now sizes the 2030 server CPU TAM at about $220B, up from $120B, versus a roughly $26B market in 2025. … Show more
Anthropic's customer growth gives AI compute suppliers firmer demand evidence than capacity plans. Its S-1 reports $16.3B in H1 2026 revenue and about 900% net retention as of September 30, the strongest evidence yet of adoption. Over $500B in commitments include a roughly $125B five-year Broadcom equipment lease plus Amazon, Google and Microsoft arrangements; Nvidia GPUs are in its mix. Long-term obligations could outlast usage revenue. x.com
Server CPUs are one of the most overlooked AI beneficiaries as agentic inference shifts 70-80% of the workload back to CPUs. Per UBS's Timothy Arcuri, server CPU TAM grows about 5x, from $31B in 2025 to $170B by 2030, with AI CPUs rising from $7B to $120-125B and ASPs climbing. Arm gains the most share, from 15% to 40-45% of units; AMD's high-core-count EPYC suits multi-agent workloads; Intel benefits from the rising tide but keeps losing share. x.com
Anthropic's compute commitments point to future revenue for Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Broadcom and Nvidia. Its S-1 reports 14-fold revenue growth, positive second-quarter 2026 EBIT and more than $600 billion committed to compute through 2045. The AI trade is alive and well, more than expected, provided demand keeps pace with those commitments. x.com
US sovereign AI and defense demand for domestically made compute will bring Intel most, if not all, US semiconductor designers as customers. PC weakness also lets Intel shift wafers to higher-margin server CPUs, but that takes a few quarters; capacity to ship more server CPUs is the limiter. The $240 billion 2030 server CPU market forecast is a stretch case, not the base case, versus roughly $200 billion consensus. x.com x.com x.com x.com x.com
A rising value of compute per watt should benefit AI cloud, chip, connectivity and power suppliers. Elon Musk says that value will rise over time. Nebius has Microsoft and Meta deals; Marvell benefits from custom silicon demand; Credo connects GPUs; Vistra has long-term nuclear supply deals with Amazon and Meta; Nokia's Nvidia partnership could help it capture data-center networking growth. x.com x.com
AMD's AI thesis is intact, and the current weakness is temporary macro noise. Raymond James upgraded AMD to Strong Buy with a $641 target, expecting the server CPU market to reach $201 billion by 2030 on a 44% compound annual growth rate as hyperscalers scale for agentic AI. Per Raymond James, AMD offers the cleanest mix of earnings leverage, pure-play data-center exposure and share gains against legacy compute. Hardware demand is accelerating. x.com
