AMD’s stock falls as Nvidia’s upcoming cryptocurrency GPUs pose a threat

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s stock fell Wednesday, bucking the sharp gains enjoyed by its peers and the broader stock market, amid growing concerns that cryptocurrency miners may start going elsewhere for their graphics cards.

The chip-maker’s stock AMD, -0.36% closed down 1.3% at $13.23, paring earlier losses of as much as 2.3% at an intraday low of $13.09. With volume of 84.8 million shares, the stock was the most actively traded on the Nasdaq exchange.

Meanwhile, the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, -0.34% climbed 1.8% and the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.21% rallied 0.9%.

Analyst Christopher Rolland at Susquehanna Financial said that after a recent trip to Asia, he can confirm recent media reports that key rival Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -0.16% will release two new cryptocurrency-specific graphics processing units (GPUs) during the third quarter. Nvidia’s stock surged 3.5% to snap a four-session losing streak.

“As these new products are more price competitive, they may pose a risk to AMD’s current offerings in the market,” Rolland wrote in a note to clients. “[The] new cards may upset AMD’s alt-crypto coin dominance.”

Nvidia said it had no comment. AMD did not respond to a request for comment.

FactSet, MarketWatch
AMD’s stock has run up 16.7% year to date, after rocketing nearly fourfold in 2016, fueled by news that Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.47% would use AMD chips in its new iMac Pro. It also got a boost from a surge in demand from cryptocurrency miners and hard-core gamers and optimism over the release of new Epyc chips for the enterprise market.

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Nvidia’s stock hasn’t been far behind, soaring 42.2% year to date after more than tripling in 2016, on the back of a strong showing in the server business and the potential for strength in the autonomous vehicles market.

On Wednesday, Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh reiterated his bullish stance on Nvidia, while raising his stock price target to $170—12.0% above current levels—from $145.

While the gaming business has been soft so far this year, conservative gaming estimates for the second half of the year “could see upside, as near-term cryptocurrency and mining trends are driving GPU shortages and pricing, combined with new auto wins and ramps at ZF,” Rakesh wrote in a research note.

Although AMD has held a dominant position in the cryptocurrency market, Susquehanna’s Rolland said that position could be threatened by the lack of supply of AMD GPUs and from a cost-reduced part supplied by the competing Nvidia. But perhaps not for very long, as AMD also have its own new offering coming soon, Rolland added.

“We note that while contacts did not mention upcoming AMD mining-specific cards, some media reports suggest their coming arrival, perhaps favoring a modest swing in competition back to AMD,” Rolland wrote.