Axcelis(US:ACLS) The Motley Fool·2024-03-17 12:07Core Viewpoint - Nvidia is a leading player in the AI revolution, with a market capitalization of $2.2 trillion, significantly boosted by its data center chips for AI workloads, but other semiconductor companies like AMD and Axcelis also present strong investment opportunities [1] Group 1: AMD's Position in the Market - AMD is emerging as a competitor to Nvidia in the data center segment, shipping its MI300 lineup of data center chips designed for AI workloads, which directly competes with Nvidia's H100 GPU [2][3] - The MI300A has been selected by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for its El Capitan supercomputer, expected to be the fastest globally, indicating strong commercial demand from major data center operators like Oracle, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms [3] - AMD's data center revenue is projected to soar, with a forecasted $3.5 billion contribution from the MI300 series in its first full year of sales, making 2024 a potentially record year for the company [4] Group 2: Axcelis Technologies' Role - Axcelis Technologies manufactures ion implantation equipment critical to chip fabrication, with significant demand driven by the electric vehicle industry and producers of silicon carbide power devices [5][6] - The company generated a record $1.13 billion in revenue in 2023, a 22.9% year-over-year increase, and ended the year with a $1.2 billion order backlog, indicating strong prospects for 2024 [7] - Axcelis' stock trades at a P/E ratio of 14.6, which is a 59% discount compared to the iShares Semiconductor ETF's P/E ratio of 35.6, suggesting it is undervalued relative to the industry [7]