AMD vs Palantir: Which AI Giant Is a Better Buy?

Vandita Jadeja

Sun, July 5, 2026 at 10:50 AM PDT 3 min read

Quick Read

• AMD stock surged 142% YTD while PLTR dropped 27%, despite Palantir growing revenue nearly twice as fast as AMD's 38%.

• Palantir closed 206 deals over $1 million as AIP transitions from bespoke consulting to a repeatable enterprise sale, driving U.S. commercial revenue up 133%.

• AMD's concrete hyperscaler customers and forward P/E near 77 look cleaner than Palantir's stretched price-to-sales of 53, making AMD the preferred AI play.

• Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and AMD didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) and Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) both delivered blockbuster Q1 2026 results in early May, attacking the AI opportunity from different angles.

AMD sold the silicon that trains and serves models. Palantir sold the software layer that turns those models into enterprise workflows. Two months later, the market is rewarding execution very differently.

Instinct GPUs Carry AMD. U.S. Commercial Carries Palantir.

AMD posted revenue of $10.253 billion, up 37.85% YoY, with Data Center alone contributing $5.775 billion at +57%. That segment is now the engine, powered by EPYC servers and Instinct MI350 shipments.

Lisa Su told investors that "Customer engagement around MI450 Series and Helios is strengthening, with leading customer forecasts exceeding our initial expectations." The Meta deal for up to 6 gigawatts of Instinct deployment gives that claim real weight.

Palantir grew faster off a smaller base. Revenue hit $1.63 billion, up 84.71%, with U.S. Commercial exploding 133% to $595 million. AIP is clearly landing with corporate buyers.

Alex Karp noted that "Palantir's Rule of 40 score has soared to 145%." The company closed 206 deals of at least $1 million, signaling that AIP is becoming a repeatable enterprise sale rather than a bespoke consulting engagement.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and AMD didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Picks and Shovels vs. Finished Product

AMD is a scale story. Su is chasing a hyperscaler capex cycle where every extra gigawatt of Instinct capacity flows into a huge, lower-margin revenue line. Guidance for Q2 revenue of roughly $11.2 billion with 56% gross margin reflects that trade-off. Export controls on MI308 to China remain a live risk, and TSMC dependence never goes away.