For most of the AI boom, one kind of chip got all the attention. Graphics processors trained the big models, Nvidia sold them, and the older hardware makers took a back seat for years.

That script began to wobble by early June. Agentic AI started pulling those older names higher, while GPU-focused Nvidia lagged the broader chip rally.

Now that trade has fresh momentum. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Oct. 6, one day after the Nasdaq Composite did the same, and tech led the rally once again.

Also read: Bank of America resets AMD price target after major milestone

Muse gives AMD its trillion-dollar moment

Meta unveiled Muse on Sept. 8 as a personal agent that users can interact with like a chat companion.

It is built to be more proactive and longer-running than a typical chatbot. Each one runs on a dedicated virtual machine in Meta’s cloud with its own built-in browser, and the company offers a free tier alongside two paid plans.

Wall Street noticed quickly. On Sept. 10, JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth upgraded Meta to Overweight from Neutral and pointed to Muse as part of a growth path that reaches beyond advertising.

By then, the agent had already climbed as high as fourth on the U.S. App Store. That was only its second day, according to TechCrunch.

Then the excitement spilled into chips. On Sept. 21, as Muse topped Apple’s U.S. App Store charts, AMD shares rose nearly 10%. The company’s market value moved past $1 trillion for the first time. It became the fourth U.S. chipmaker to get there, after Nvidia, Broadcom, and Micron.

The gains have kept coming. AMD is up 32% over the past month and Intel 21%, leaving the megacap tech names behind, according to CNBC.

OpenAI has since rolled out a personal agent of its own, called Dots. CPUs are back in the conversation as an important part of the infrastructure needed to keep long-running agents working in the background.

AMD chief executive Lisa Su

Bloomberg / Getty Images

Why agents lean on the CPU

The logic is simple enough. An agent does not just answer a question. It runs complex, multi-step tasks on its own.

AMD CEO Lisa Su made the point in July. She said AI is no longer just a GPU story and that agentic systems need significant CPU resources for orchestration, data handling, and coordination, as reported by TheStreet.

The products themselves back her up. Ask Muse what it runs on, and it says an AMD-based computer. Dots likewise gets its own cloud computer. Benchmarks and the agents’ own answers suggest that Muse’s virtual computer uses two processor cores, and Dots uses nine.

Analysts were sketching this out months before Muse arrived. “We are constructive on CPU demand as the industry moves to inference and agentic AI which need more CPUs,” Citi analyst Atif Malik wrote in a research note in May, when he raised his price target on Intel, according to TheStreet.

AMD also has a direct line into Meta. The social media company signed on as a lead customer for AMD’s next-generation Venice CPUs under a deal covering up to 6 gigawatts of compute. A meaningful chunk of Meta’s data center build-out is now flowing straight to AMD.

Wall Street redraws its CPU math

Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold got ahead of the move. On Aug. 25, he upgraded AMD to Strong Buy and built his case on server CPUs, a corner of the market that tends to get less attention than graphics chips. “AMD’s growth should enable it to overtake Intel during 2027,” he wrote, according to CNBC.

He was not the first bull. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst C.J. Muse lifted his AMD price target to $700 from $500 on June 29 and kept an Overweight rating, according to investing.com.

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Intel has its own supporters. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya called the emergence of agentic AI “a powerful demand accelerant” and argued it gives Intel a fresh path back into the AI conversation. The bank projected Intel’s server CPU revenue could top $40 billion by the end of the decade.

Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan put it more bluntly. “Right now, the demand is very high for my CPU,” he said.

Even so, the big banks are split on the stock. Bank of America and Citi turned bullish, while Wells Fargo kept an Equal Weight rating, reflecting a more cautious view of how much upside remained in the shares.

What could cool the trade

The first risk is price. When Leopold made his call in August, AMD already traded at roughly 41 times projected earnings. Reaching his $641 target meant crossing a trillion-dollar market value. The agentic AI adoption behind his server CPU forecast could also roll out more slowly than today’s models assume.

The second is that GPUs are hardly fading. Nvidia’s market value was closing in on $6 trillion on Oct. 6, a threshold no company has ever reached. Its shares are up 30% this year, helped by a strong revenue outlook and a bigger share buyback.

The third is that AMD’s seat inside these agents is not locked in. A Meta spokesperson said the company designed its system to use whatever kind of CPU is available.

For now, the personal agent boom is lifting the fortunes of AMD and Intel together.

Related: Bank of America warns Apple investors because of Meta’s Muse