Nov 3 (Reuters) - AMD forecast fourth-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, buoyed by strong demand for its chips as its multibillion-dollar effort to challenge Nvidia's dominance of the AI semiconductor market gains momentum.
The company, which nearly doubled its data-center revenue in the third quarter, is benefiting as a shift in AI workloads toward running models in real-world applications drives demand for its graphics processing units and central processors.
This has enabled AMD to capture market share from rival Intel, which last week forecast quarterly revenue well below estimates and triggered a global selloff in chip stocks.
AMD expects fourth-quarter revenue of about $17 billion, plus or minus 3%, above analysts' average estimate of $16.23 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company's adjusted gross margin is expected to be about 55%, compared with estimates of 55.27% and down from 56% in the third quarter.
Shares of the company, which briefly entered the $1 trillion market capitalization club, have more than doubled so far this year.
AMD has stepped up AI product rollouts, moving beyond standalone chips to compete with Nvidia's rack-scale systems.
The company's flagship Helios rack, combining its MI455X accelerator and new "Venice" server chips, is in production and set for a larger ramp-up in the fourth quarter. The initial systems are being tested at Meta.
In February, the company agreed to sell up to $60 billion worth of AI chips to Meta over five years in a deal that allows the Facebook owner to purchase as much as 10% of the chip firm.
AMD's third-quarter revenue rose 45% to $13.38 billion, beating estimates of $13.09 billion. Data-center revenue jumped 97% to a record $8.55 billion, exceeding estimates of $8.20 billion.
Adjusted profit came in at $2.09 per share, compared with estimates of $1.95.
The semiconductor industry is also grappling with a global memory shortage, leaving expensive high-bandwidth memory used in AI processors in scarce supply as manufacturers race to increase production.
Third-quarter sales in AMD's client and gaming segment, home to its PC chips and console processors, fell 8% to $3.72 billion, missing estimates of $3.79 billion.
Beyond chips, AMD in September agreed to buy Fei-Fei Li's World Labs, a startup building AI that models 3D environments, for $8.2 billion in stock, gaining a foothold in research on physical AI systems.
(Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru and Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)