Intel wins latest race in chip uses for the cloud, says KeyBanc Capital Markets

In May, cloud instances resumed solid sequential growth, KeyBanc said, increasing 3% from April and 26% compared with the same period last year. This was led mostly by instances harnessing Intel processors, which increased 4% from April and 18% on the same period last year. The growth was mostly fueled by use of Intel’s Ice Lake processor, which grew 10% month-over-month and 71% year-over-year thanks largely to use in Amazon.com Inc.’s AMZN, +3.58% Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform.

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“We view these results as moderately positive for INTC, given modest share gains in cloud for the first time since September 2021,” wrote KeyBanc analyst John Vinh, in a note released Thursday.

Cloud instances that used Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +5.55% and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +5.64% processors increased modestly, according to Vinh. Instances harnessing Nvidia’s graphics processor grew 2% month-over-month and 39% year-over-year, thanks mostly to use of its Ampere processor at Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA, +4.91%.

AMD cloud instances grew 1% from April and 116% year-over-year. Use of the company’s Milan processors grew modestly in May, led my AWS deployments, Vinh wrote.

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Shares of Intel gained 3.1% in afternoon trading Friday, boosted by the broader rebound in tech stocks, while Nvidia climbed 4.0% and AMD rose 4.8%, outpacing the S&P 500 index’s SPX, +3.06% 2.4% gain.