Intel reshuffle creates buying opportunity in AMD, says Jim Cramer

CNBC’s Jim Cramer has beaten the table on one of his favorite semiconductor companies after stocks plunged on news of a leadership change at one of his main rivals, Intel.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices fell nearly 4% after Intel said it would replace its chief executive in a month. Intel shares rose 7% as investors welcomed news that current CEO Bob Swan had stepped down to make way for Pat Gelsinger, a former Intel head of VMware, to take over in February.

As much as Intel needs a change, what matters here is that you now have a chance to buy Intel’s more agile rival AMD, down by more than three dollars, for something that could not even happen: a shift at Intel the next three years, “said the host of” Mad Money. ” “Gelsinger has done a good job at VMware, but Intel doesn’t really need an old Intel hand. It needs someone new, young, hungry who can shake up the culture, if not blow it up completely. “

In AMD, buyers would get a share of a $ 110.4 billion company whose inventory nearly doubled last year. Shares of Intel, a larger player with a market cap of $ 233.4 billion, fell more than 16% in 2020 as the company reported a delay in developing new chips and lost a key partnership with Apple.

Before these problems, companies like AMD and Samsung started to take market share from Intel.

Cramer, who applauded Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, for her leadership of the graphics chip producer, also reiterated his love for Nvidia, a $ 335 billion semiconductor player.

“I would much rather buy the shares of a company that beats Intel to a paste, AMD,” Cramer said. “Under the incredible leadership of Lisa Su, they’ve gone from being a semiconductor that is also exploited – still second-largest after Intel – to one that makes better chips.”

The comments came after a mixed day of stock trading on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 8 points, or about 0.03%, at 31,060.47. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both extended their gains from Tuesday, up 0.23% to 3,809.84 and 0.43% to 13,128.95, respectively.

The three averages remain to this day in the red week.

Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia.

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