Munching on "squid marinated in its own guts" and mulling whether to buy AMD.

Last Thursday, I was out for dinner with some work folks (the best folks, I am so fortunate to work with such fantastic people) and by pure happenstance, I was seated across from the dude I work with whose brain is packed with Big Data on emerging technology (he also happens to play guitar so... doubleplusgood). As I nibbled on my last bite of squid marinated in its own guts (scrumptious), the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) came up and in we dove. I confess, I was struggling to keep up but, damn, did I learn a lot, or at least I thought I did, and, based on some things we talked about, I left the restaurant totally resolved to buy AMD.

My fervor for the poster child of "also-ran companies" (AMD) was based on my perceived notion that AMD had serious artificial intelligence (AI) chops, enough to cause the AI champ, NVIDIA (NVDA), a graphic wound. Truth be told, I'm not really sure why I left the restaurant convinced of AMD's potential bounty, but... when I checked the market today for the first time at my customary time of

8:30.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001,

 I noticed that AMD was up. A lot. Over 6%. I almost bought but decided to do my best to validate my seemingly crystal clear memory of AMD's AI acumen and I found... nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Null. Zero. Every article I read put NVIDIA at the top of the AI market, with a bullet.

What was it I had heard while chewing on squid guts that made me so gung ho on AMD?

Meanwhile, now the price is closing on a 7% gain. 7... waitaminute... 7 nanometer, that was it!

A bit more reading and the case was clear: AMD was using a 7nm manufacturing process while mighty Intel (INTC) was struggling with 10nm. There was other confusing stuff about AMD's architecture, but the 7nm thing was enough for me. INTC has always depended on being ahead in the miniaturization game and now they're behind. This tidbit decomplexified the whole equation for me and I bought AMD because 7nm is a Big Deal in the ever smaller world of chips. Further, AMD is offering its cutting edge chips for prices that undercut what INTC wants for its dino tech.

Will INTC get to 7nm? Sure, eventually. Will INTC retain its data center dominance? No question. But until INTC gets its act together on manufacturing, AMD will make a lot of money. And who knows, maybe AMD will sustain its advantage this time. I mean, INTC never figured out mobile, only the biggest market opportunity for chips since PCs, so I'm not totally convinced they're going to squish AMD yet again.