AI Agents Boost CPUs: AMD and Intel Outperform Tech Giants

The boom in personal AI agents is reshaping the compute landscape. AMD and Intel have seen their stock prices jump 32% and 21% respectively over the past month, outperforming all major tech giants.

For years, Nvidia’s GPUs dominated the generative AI market. However, with the widespread adoption of agents like Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s Dots, workloads are shifting from pure model inference to tasks requiring long-running background execution. Ryan Shrout, president of Signal65, notes that as more agents are developed, workload shifts away from GPUs and onto CPUs.

Specifically, both Muse and Dots run on virtual computers powered by AMD EPYC processors. While GPUs still handle the “thinking” (model inference), CPUs manage the “doing” (workflow orchestration). Morgan Stanley estimates that Meta’s agent alone could account for 20% of AMD’s 2026 chip sales.

Although Nvidia has introduced Vera CPUs designed specifically for agents and projects a $200 billion CPU market by 2030, analysts currently view AMD as having the best product in this segment. Nevertheless, cloud providers are increasingly adopting custom Arm-based chips, leaving room for future competitive shifts.