AMD Slides Pre-Market After Jefferies Downgrades Stock Citing Nvidia Dominance, Intel Competition – Retail Sentiment Sours

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading Thursday after Jefferies downgraded the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ and lowered its price target to $120 from $135. 

The brokerage cited growing competitive pressures from Intel (INTC) and Nvidia (NVDA) and expressed skepticism over AMD’s AI growth projections, according to TheFly.

Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis pointed to Intel’s strengthening position and AMD’s underperformance against Nvidia (NVDA) in AI workloads as key factors behind the downgrade. 

A benchmarking study by the firm found that AMD’s MI300X GPUs lagged significantly behind Nvidia’s H200 across multiple open-source AI models.

Jefferies believes this performance gap will only widen due to Nvidia’s well-established software stack, which is critical in optimizing AI efficiency. 

Following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote at GTC 2025 last week, Citi analyst Christopher Danely also suggested that a larger share of data center spending is likely to shift toward Nvidia, echoing Jefferies’s concerns about AMD’s positioning in the AI space.

While AMD stock has already pulled back, Curtis argues that Wall Street’s AI revenue projections of $10 billion to $15 billion for 2026-2027 remain overly optimistic. The brokerage sees more downside risk than upside potential in the near term.

"When we assumed coverage of AMD in May 2024, we expected continued share gains in PC and server markets but had concerns about AI momentum," Curtis wrote in a note to investors, cited by CNBC. "Fast forward to today, and we’re still not seeing the progress needed to justify a continued positive stance.”

AMD retail sentiment and message volume on March 27 as of 7:20 a.m. ET | Source: Stocktwits

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around AMD’s stock dipped to neutral territory from bullish a day ago. However, it was among the top 10 trending stocks on the platform Thursday morning.

One user noted that AMD’s AI business may be facing challenges, but the company remains well-positioned in the CPU and gaming segments. 

Meanwhile, another user dismissed Intel as a serious competitor, arguing that AMD’s CPUs are still superior.

AMD has declined nearly 40% over the past 12 months and is down almost 10% in 2025. The stock has been trending lower since falling below its 200-day simple moving average (SMA) in October.

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