New York, February 23, 2026, 10:54 EST — Regular session
- AMD shares down about 1.4% in late morning trade, hovering near $197
- Tech stocks slide as fresh tariff uncertainty weighs on risk appetite
- Traders eye Nvidia’s results later this week for read-through on AI chip demand
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices slipped about 1.4% to $197.29 in late morning Nasdaq trade on Monday, as technology stocks pulled back. The stock has traded between $194.42 and $199.34, with about 8.3 million shares changing hands.
The move matters now because semiconductors sit in long, cross-border supply chains, and broad tariffs can rattle everything from electronics demand to pricing power. When trade policy turns messy, chip stocks tend to take the hit early.
Investors are also watching whether big spending on AI servers is translating into cleaner profits, not just higher shipments. That keeps the group twitchy on the tape, even on days without direct AMD news.
U.S. stocks fell, with heavyweight technology names leading declines, after President Donald Trump announced a new 15% duty following a Supreme Court ruling that struck down his broader levies. At 09:55 a.m. ET, the Dow was down 0.68%, the S&P 500 off 0.36% and the Nasdaq down 0.48%. “You simply can’t bet against Trump. He wants tariffs, and he’s going to find a way to implement them,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital. (Reuters)
AMD has also been in focus after a senior executive outlined an India push built around “Helios,” a rack-scale system — essentially a full rack of AI gear packaged as one unit. Thomas Zacharia, a senior vice president for strategic technology partnerships and public policy, described Helios as a 72-GPU integrated system capable of 2.9 exaflops — a measure of computing speed — in a single rack. “This is not just about GPUs. It’s about the entire stack, hardware and software integrated at the rack level,” he said. (The Economic Times)
In a Feb. 16 press release, AMD and Tata Consultancy Services said they would co-develop a Helios-based rack-scale AI infrastructure design for India, tied to deployments supporting up to 200 megawatts of capacity. Chief executive Lisa Su said: “With ‘Helios,’ we are delivering an open, rack-scale AI platform designed for performance, efficiency, and long-term flexibility.” (AMD)
The pitch is part of a broader shift across the chip sector: sell systems and software along with silicon, and capture more of the data-center budget. It is also harder to execute, because it depends on customers building out power, networking and full deployments, not just swapping parts.
AMD is trying to close the gap with Nvidia in AI accelerators while defending share in server processors against Intel. That leaves the stock sensitive to sentiment swings around corporate IT budgets and whatever the next earnings print says about the pace of AI spend.
But tariffs are still a moving target, and the downside case for chipmakers is straightforward: higher costs, softer demand, and more uncertainty in forecasts. Any sign that AI spending is slowing, or shifting to in-house chips, can pressure valuations quickly.
The next focal point for traders comes on Wednesday, when Nvidia hosts a conference call to discuss its quarterly results. That report is likely to set the tone for AI data-center demand expectations across AMD and the rest of the sector. (Nvidia)
