NEW YORK, February 21, 2026, 11:39 (EST) — Market closed
- AMD slipped 1.6% to finish Friday at $200.15.
- AMD is set to guarantee a $300 million loan for Crusoe, according to a report, with the financing linked to Crusoe buying AMD’s AI chips.
- Nvidia’s earnings are up next week, with investors watching closely. AMD is also on the radar, set to appear at a conference on March 3.
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices slipped 1.6% to close at $200.15 on Friday, following news that the chipmaker will guarantee a $300 million loan for cloud startup Crusoe, enabling Crusoe to purchase and roll out AMD’s AI chips. According to the report, AMD will lease back the chips if Crusoe falls short of finding customers.
The structure hits at the debate investors can’t quite settle: is the AI rollout actually meeting real demand, or is it running on the fuel of easy financing? For AMD, this is also a clear move to get its hardware into circulation, angling for more share in the data-center AI space.
U.S. markets are closed for the weekend, so traders will be watching Monday for fresh clarity—maybe expanded details on the Crusoe arrangement, or any hint it could become a blueprint. To some investors, these kinds of deals could help speed up adoption. But there’s also the camp worried that sales might just be pushed forward.
Crusoe secured a loan from Goldman Sachs to purchase AMD chips for its new Springfield, Ohio campus, using the processors as collateral, according to Data Center Dynamics. AMD, the outlet reported, has agreed to rent back those chips if Crusoe fails to land customers—a move that enabled Crusoe to lock in an interest rate near 6%.
AMD trailed on Friday, missing out on gains that lifted the broader market. The S&P 500 edged up 0.69% and the Dow put on 0.47% for the day. Nvidia picked up 1.0%, but Intel slipped 1.1%, according to MarketWatch data.
In a separate U.S. securities disclosure, Ava Hahn—AMD’s senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary—sold 286 shares at $198.65 apiece on Feb. 18. The trade was executed through a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a preset schedule for stock sales. Following the deal, Hahn’s stake stood at 17,216 shares.
The lineup for next week could easily tilt the AI trade, and not just for AMD. Nvidia drops its numbers on Wednesday—everybody’s waiting for any hint in the forecast or words from the CEO about how much the top AI players are really spending. “It’s hard for Nvidia to surprise when everyone expects it to surprise,” said Marta Norton, chief investment strategist at Empower. Nick Giorgi, chief equity strategist at Alpine Macro, puts it bluntly: “Jensen has to come out and show his confidence in his own customers.” Reuters
AMD faces a clear risk here: if Crusoe can’t utilize its capacity, AMD’s leaseback arrangement might prompt new doubts about the strength and staying power of demand—and whether leasebacks like this are hiding softer adoption. A slip in Nvidia’s outlook, too, has the potential to weigh on other AI-related chip stocks, even in the absence of fresh headlines.
AMD investors are also eyeing March 3, the date set for the company’s appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.
