AMD, Intel, Micron and Corning Shares Jump Sharply This Week Amid AI-Driven Demand for CPUs and Memory

Advanced Micro Devices and Intel shares each gained about 25% this week while Micron jumped more than 35% and Corning climbed about 20%. The moves extended a broader rally that has seen all four companies more than double in value in 2026. Intel shares are up well over 200% this year, outpacing Nvidia's 16% gain.

Micron blew past an $800 billion market capitalization for the first time this week and is now worth more than JPMorgan. The stock posted its best week in two decades and is up over 750% in the past year. Memory has emerged as a central theme amid a global shortage that has driven up prices.

Sanjay Mehrotra told CNBC in March that key customers are only getting 50% to two-thirds of their requirements because of supply issues. The memory market is largely dominated by Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix. Samsung and SK Hynix are in the midst of historic rallies of their own.

AMD quarterly results this week exceeded estimates on earnings, revenue and guidance due to strong data center growth. The company now expects 35% growth over the next three to five years in the server CPU market, up from a forecast of 18% growth that AMD provided in November.

Bank of America estimates the data center CPU market could more than double from $27 billion in 2025 to $60 billion in 2030.

"Agents are really driving tremendous demand in the overall AI adoption cycle, and we're very excited to be in the middle of it," Lisa Su told CNBC's Squawk on the Street on Wednesday. Analysts at Goldman Sachs and Bernstein upgraded AMD stock to a buy rating citing CPU tailwinds.

JPMorgan Chase analysts said the AMD report crystallizes the structural inflection underway across both server CPU and datacenter accelerator growth trajectories.

U.S. government last year and has staged a sharp recovery. The stock had its best month on record in April, more than doubling, and rose 33% in the early days of May.

U.S. devices. Intel shares climbed another 14% on Friday after the Wall Street Journal reported that Intel and Apple have come to an agreement for Intel to manufacture some processors for Apple devices.

Representatives from Intel and Apple declined to comment on the reported manufacturing agreement. S. factories dedicated entirely to optical technologies for Nvidia.

2 billion in Corning. Corning inked a $6 billion deal with Meta through 2030 to provide fiber-optic cables in Meta's AI data centers. "We're going to scale up optical at a scale that, quite frankly, no optical companies have ever enjoyed," Jensen Huang told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Thursday.

Huang added that the economy is going through the single largest infrastructure buildout in human history. Corning stock reached a record in February when it passed its prior high from the dot-com era in 2000. The PHLX Semiconductor Index is up 66% so far in 2026.

Nvidia shares rallied 9% this week even as the company has seen its relative performance lag behind the surge in CPU, memory and optical suppliers.