AMD stock surges past Intel for first time in more than a decade

What you need to know

• AMD stock prices surpassed Intel's for the first time since 2006.
• AMD's market cap is $72.43 billion while Intel's is $260.79 billion.
• The surge in AMD's stock is in large part due to its Zen architecture and Ryzen CPUs.

AMD's stock price recently passed Intel's stock price for the first time since 2006. AMD's stock price recently hit $61.79 while Intel's sat at $61.57. The two company's stock prices jockeyed for top position for some time, but the trend illustrates a consistent rise from AMD.

This is the first time since 2006 that AMD's stock price is higher than Intel's. While a milestone, it's important to place these figures into context. As pointed out by Tom's Hardware, AMD stock prices are not an indicator of a company's total value. AMD's market cap is $72.43 billion while Intel's is at a sizably larger $260.79 billion.

Stock prices, instead, indicate optimism among investors. AMD's Zen architecture and its Ryzen line of CPUs continues to do well. In contrast, Intel is struggling to move to 7nm chips. Intel recently announced that it's delaying its 7nm chips to 2022 or 2023. AMD's Ryzen chips have earned a strong reputation for delivering a lot of bang for your buck, as shown by the Ryzen-powered HP Envy x360 13 making our list of best Windows laptops.