Sometimes a rival's good news is your good news too. That's the story for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on Thursday, as shares climbed in after-hours trading after competitor Intel Corp (INTC) delivered a quarter that blew past expectations.

Intel reported 25% year-over-year revenue growth in the second quarter — its strongest in more than 15 years. Adjusted earnings came in at double what analysts had predicted. The Data Center and AI segment was a standout, jumping 59% year-over-year to $6.3 billion. Intel also guided for third-quarter adjusted earnings of 38 cents per share on revenue between $15.8 billion and $16.8 billion, well above the analyst consensus of 24 cents and $15.1 billion. The company raised its capital expenditure outlook to a range of $18 billion to $20 billion.

“AI-driven compute continues to strengthen, and to support expected growth this year and next across products and foundry, we are meaningfully increasing our investments in equipment, clean room space, and substrates,” Intel CFO Dave Zinsner said.

So why does Intel's success lift AMD's stock? Because Intel and AMD are the two main suppliers of x86 server processors — the host CPUs that work alongside GPUs and other accelerators in AI data centers. When Intel sees surging demand for AI infrastructure, it's a strong signal that the entire market is growing, and AMD stands to benefit as the other major player.

AMD is scheduled to report its own second-quarter results after the market close on Aug. 4. Investors will be watching closely to see if AMD can match Intel's momentum.

AMD Price Action: AMD shares were up 2.81% in after-hours trading at $554.85 at the time of publication on Thursday.