New York, Feb 19, 2026, 08:37 EST — Premarket
- Advanced Micro Devices slipped about 1.5% before the open, with shares holding just below $200.
- CFO Jean Hu sold nearly 20,000 shares, a move disclosed in a filing and carried out under a pre-set 10b5-1 trading plan.
- Traders are watching for U.S. data set for release later Thursday and Friday, looking for signals that could move tech stocks and shift rate expectations.
Advanced Micro Devices shares lost $2.99, about 1.5%, ahead of Thursday’s opening bell, drifting toward the $200 mark in premarket trading before U.S. markets opened.
AMD remains in the spotlight after a rough start to February. The chipmaker pointed to a sequential revenue drop, sharpening scrutiny on how quickly it’s catching up to Nvidia in the data-center AI chip space. 1
Traders pulled back before the bell, with sentiment dented by softness in tech shares, fresh signals out of the Federal Reserve, and a new round of data threatening to shake up growth stocks. “A meaningful broadening appears to have emerged,” Tom Nelson, head of market strategy at Franklin Templeton, wrote in a note. 2
On Feb. 17, CFO Jean Hu sold 19,956 AMD shares, pulling in weighted averages that ranged from about $196.78 up to $205.12, per a regulatory filing out Wednesday. The sale was made under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, the preset arrangement for insider trades, according to the document. 3
AMD revealed in a Feb. 17 8-K that the board approved a special “CEO Value Creation Equity Award” for Chief Executive Lisa Su, valued at $75 million and scheduled for a March 15 grant. The actual payout could range from nothing to double that amount, hinging on AMD’s stock performance through March 15, 2031, the filing shows. 4
The company disclosed that annual cash bonuses for top executives including Su and Hu are set for payout in March. Its filing also spells out that the equity award comes with a strict performance condition: stock-price targets. One tier kicks in at $600—a mark that tops AMD’s earlier record, as referenced in the filing.
The race is still on. Nvidia has locked in a multiyear deal to supply Meta Platforms with millions of AI chips—covering both its current lineup and future releases, plus central processors aimed squarely at Intel and AMD’s turf. “The results look very promising,” Nvidia executive Ian Buck said of Meta’s early tests with the company’s not-yet-released Vera CPUs. 5
AMD is pushing back against rumors swirling about delays to its forthcoming rack-scale AI system. Anush Elangovan, a corporate vice president for software at the chipmaker, addressed the MI455X timeline speculation in a post on X, dismissing the claims as “still wrong.” Elangovan reiterated the company’s guidance, saying AMD remains “on target for 2H 2026,” per Tom’s Hardware. 6
But it’s not a clear-cut story. Insider selling—10b5-1 plans included—often unnerves short-term players, particularly when the stock’s already hypersensitive to AI spending headlines or whatever comes out of Nvidia next.
Whether AMD can hold above $200 on Thursday is in focus, with traders watching closely as fresh macro data hits. Later in the day, U.S. weekly jobless claims data arrives. That’s ahead of the personal consumption expenditures inflation report, due Friday, Feb. 20. Both reports could sway interest-rate expectations, and names like AMD often move fast in response.
