Nvidia is Far From The Only Threat to AMD
Intel just posted its strongest data center growth in 15 years, and Broadcom is pulling AI budgets toward custom chips that undercut GPU pricing. AMD is fighting a two-front war it rarely gets credit for.
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Most investors see AMD (NASDAQ:AMD | AMD Price Prediction) as a GPU challenger. Two rivals just showed that its competition runs wider than that. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) reported on October 29, 2026 that Xeon server demand rose sharply. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) posted custom AI chip revenue that more than tripled. Intel goes after AMD’s EPYC server CPUs. Broadcom goes after the AI compute budget.
Xeon Supply Lifts Intel While Custom Chips Lift Broadcom
Intel’s Data Center and AI revenue hit $7.32B, up 78%. That was its strongest data center growth in 15 years, and it is server share AMD wants. Management named its rival on the call: “In terms of Coral Rapids, we will be competitive to AMD.” PCs remain the weak spot. Client revenue slipped 5% to $8.10B, and Intel expects 2026 PC units to fall about 12%. AMD’s Ryzen line faces that same headwind.
Broadcom’s AI semiconductor revenue reached $16.70B, up 221%, and custom XPUs made up 73% of AI revenue. Google, Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta all use Broadcom-built accelerators. Management’s pitch: “In many cases, it’s less than half the cost compared to GPUs.” That figure comes from Broadcom management. Labs that accept that cost math have a reason to shift spending away from AMD’s Instinct chips.
| Business Driver | Intel | Broadcom |
|---|---|---|
| Overlap With AMD | EPYC and Ryzen CPUs | Instinct GPUs, networking |
| Growth Engine | Granite Rapids Xeon | Custom XPUs for six customers |
| Bottleneck | Intel 3 wafers, substrates | Power, HBM, lasers |
Supply Decides Intel’s Share, Six Customers Decide Broadcom’s
Intel describes 2027 as a supply race: “I really see market share next year being a function of supply.” That only helps AMD if its own supply holds up. An accident at Intel’s Israel factory will cost about $300 million of Q4 revenue. The stock fell 35.41% over the past week.
Broadcom guided fiscal 2027 AI revenue to about $115 billion. Hitting that depends on customers finding land and power for new data centers. The target is ambitious, and it gets shaky if even one AI lab stalls.
Smaller Rivals Are Picking at AMD’s Niches
- Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL): Data Center hit 79% of total revenue, driven by custom silicon for Google.
- Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM): targets $5 billion in data center revenue for fiscal 2027, with server CPUs due in fiscal 2028.
- Arm Holdings: demand for its AGI CPU now tops $2 billion, adding to Arm-based servers that take ground from x86.
- Lattice Semiconductor: mostly a partner that supports AMD Helios racks, though it competes with AMD-Xilinx in low-density FPGAs.
Substrates and Gigawatts Will Decide the Next Round
I will be watching whether Intel’s extra substrate capacity arrives in the back half of 2027, because that is what lets it ship more Xeons. Track Broadcom’s $21.7B fiscal Q4 AI revenue guide. If Broadcom hits it, that confirms custom chips keep pulling spending away from GPU vendors.
Why I See Broadcom as AMD’s Bigger Long-Term Threat
For me, Broadcom is the harder problem. Intel competes in a market AMD already knows well, and its recovery depends on factories that were just hit by an accident. Broadcom changes how the buying decision gets made by swaying the biggest AI buyers to design their own chips. Turnaround investors may lean toward Intel, though supply remains the open question.
Growth investors get a stronger customer list with Broadcom. (We studied what the early signs of the biggest chip winners looked like and put the pattern in a free playbook here.) The catch is that so much revenue comes from a few customers, and I can’t ignore that risk.
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Alex Sirois is a financial writer with experience spanning both retail and institutional investing. He has written for InvestorPlace and held roles at BNY Mellon and Bernstein, giving him a perspective that bridges Main Street portfolios and Wall Street analysis.
Alex holds an MBA from George Washington University and has built his career across multiple industries, including e-commerce, education, and translation — a breadth of experience that informs how he breaks down complex financial topics for everyday investors. His writing is conversational, actionable, and grounded in long-term, buy-and-hold investing principles.
At 247 Wall St., Alex focuses on delivering analysis that is both accessible and useful, with a clear emphasis on helping readers make more informed decisions with their money.
