AMD at $514, PLTR at $174: Buy, Sell or Hold?

AMD at $514, PLTR at $174: Buy, Sell or Hold?

Vandita Jadeja

Mon, August 17, 2026 at 5:30 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Quick Read

• AMD posted 107% data center growth in Q2 while Palantir, despite 93% revenue growth, trades at a forward P/E of 109 with no valuation cushion.

• Meta committed 6 gigawatts of AMD MI450 capacity, yet NVIDIA still commands roughly 85% of the GPU market.

• The most widely read finance newsletter on Substack isn't published by a bank, it's Doomberg, where 383,000+ readers get the energy and macro analysis the mainstream press misses. 24/7 Wall St. readers save 17% on their first year here.

At $514, AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) looks constructively positioned, while at $174, Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) appears fully valued. Both names anchor the AI trade, yet their setups sit on opposite sides of the risk curve.

AMD's Q2 delivered $11.5 billion in revenue with data center up 107% year over year, and Q3 guidance points to roughly $13 billion. Palantir posted $1.94 billion in Q2 revenue, up 92.8%, yet shares are down 2.09% year to date as the multiple digests its own success.

The Bull Case for AMD

The bull case rests on customer commitments that read like a backlog. Anthropic has agreed to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of MI450 GPUs in Helios racks. OpenAI has committed to 6 gigawatts and Meta (NASDAQ:META) another 6 gigawatts.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is expanding Azure's Helios footprint. Lisa Su now sizes the data center TAM at roughly $1.4 trillion by 2030, and 2027 data center revenue is guided to more than double.

Forward P/E of 69 with a PEG of 1.1 is not cheap, but it is not extreme for a business compounding revenue above 40% with expanding margins. Analysts carry a $612.84 average target, about 19% above the quote, with 41 Buy or Strong Buy ratings, 10 Holds, and zero Sells.

The Bear Case for AMD

The pushback starts with the tape. AMD is up 140.19% year to date and 184.27% over one year, dwarfing the S&P 500's high single-digit YTD gain. Trailing P/E sits at 132, EV/EBITDA at 78, and beta at 2.49.

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Any Helios slip, China export shock, or HBM squeeze gets punished hard at these multiples. Gaming revenue fell 31%, and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) still holds roughly 85% of GPU share.

AMD Verdict at $514: Constructive Setup Into 2027

At $514, AMD's risk/reward skews favorable. Here is why. The 2027 setup is the cleanest in semis outside NVIDIA. Server CPU growth of more than 70% in 2027 plus data center AI "well over 100%" gives investors two independent growth vectors, not one.

Lisa Su told analysts the Street's $30 billion 2027 Instinct estimate is "probably too low". Consensus should drift higher into year-end. The thesis breaks if Helios ships late or China rules widen. Watch Q3 execution and Q1 2027 initial rack deliveries. Absent those, the path of least resistance is higher.

The Bull Case for Palantir

Palantir's Q2 was, per Alex Karp, "otherworldly." Revenue grew 92.8%, U.S. commercial jumped 149%, and the Rule of 40 score hit 155%.

Full-year 2026 guidance was raised to $8.15 billion, implying 82% growth, with adjusted free cash flow guided to $4.5 to $4.7 billion. Growth is accelerating, which is rare at this scale.

The Bear Case for Palantir

The valuation is the entire bear thesis. Trailing P/E of 150, forward P/E of 109, price-to-sales of 68, and EV/EBITDA of 154 leave no cushion. Shares are down 3.86% over one year while the S&P 500 pushed higher, evidence multiple compression is already grinding. Stock-based comp ran $265 million in the quarter, and insider activity has skewed toward selling.

Palantir Verdict at $174: Priced for Perfection

At $174, Palantir looks fully valued. Here is why. The business is executing at a level almost no software company has matched, yet the stock has already been paid for two years of that outcome. The Street sees only modest upside to a $191.68 target, roughly 10%, and targets are not guarantees.

Prediction markets assign an 86% probability PLTR pins near $174 this week, consistent with a stock hunting for a new catalyst. A reset toward the $135 fifty-day average, or another blowout that lifts the growth runway, would improve the entry. The thesis breaks if U.S. commercial cools. Until then, patience has the best risk-adjusted payoff.

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