If You Invested $10,000 in AMD 10 Years Ago: $728,779

A $10,000 stake in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) ten years ago would be worth $728,779. The same money in the S&P 500 would be worth $41,959. Both are valued on 26 October 2026.

A company picked after the outcome is known is a poor guide to anything else.

The stake buys at the close on 26 October 2016 and is still held on 26 October 2026. That is 2,513 trading days.

Both figures count dividends as though they were reinvested. AMD paid no dividend in these ten years and had no share split, so its figure is a plain price return.

The comparison is against SPY (the S&P 500 ETF), bought on the same day with the same money.

A fall is measured from a previous high of the stake. The time to get back is counted from that high, so it includes the fall itself.

The first and last calendar periods are partial. 2016 runs from 26 October to 31 December. 2026 runs from 1 January to 26 October.

Nothing here is adjusted for inflation, so both figures are in nominal US dollars. There are no dealing costs, no tax and no currency conversion for a reader outside the United States.

$10,000 became $728,779. That is 72.88 times the money, or 53.56% a year.

The same $10,000 in the index became $41,959, which is 4.20 times the money, or 15.42% a year. AMD ended at 17.37 times the index.

That came with far more day-to-day movement. Volatility here means how widely a price swings from day to day, scaled to a year. AMD's was 56.77% a year, against 18.00% for the index.

The largest single-day moves show it. Across all 2,513 sessions, AMD's worst day was a fall of 24.2% on 2 May 2017. Its best was a rise of 23.8% on 9 April 2025. The index's best day was also 9 April 2025, at 10.5%.

AMD beat the index in eight of the eleven calendar periods and lost to it in three: 2017, 2022 and 2024.

All three of those periods lost money. The stake fell 9.3% in 2017, 55.0% in 2022 and 18.1% in 2024. In 2024 the index rose 24.9%.

The index lost money in two of the eleven, 2018 and 2022. AMD was the more frequent loser as well as the bigger winner.

Two periods stand out. AMD returned 148.4% in 2019 and 148.1% in 2026, where 2026 runs only to 26 October. Those two compound to 6.16 times on their own.

Without them the AMD stake would still have ended at 11.83 times what went in. The index, with the same two periods removed, would have ended at 2.83 times.

The worst stretch ran from 29 November 2021 to 14 October 2022, when the stake fell 65.4% from its high. That took 319 days. It regained the high on 18 January 2024, which is 2.14 years after the high was set.

The index fell less, but faster: 33.7% between 19 February and 23 March 2020, in 33 days. It was back at its high by 10 August 2020, 0.47 years after the high.

Both figures come from searching all 2,513 sessions for the deepest fall from a previous high.

A different measure points the same way. The worst twelve months inside the decade cost the AMD stake 59.8%, against 19.7% for the index. For AMD that stretch ran from 9 November 2021 to 9 November 2022.

The 2022 fall of 65.4% was the deepest of the decade. We tracked the running high of the stake. A stretch counts when the stake closed at least 30% below that high and then later closed at or above it again.

The AMD stake had five such stretches in the decade. The index had one, in 2020.

The five ranged from 34.3% to 65.4%. The fall of 63.0% ran from 7 March 2024 to 8 April 2025. The stake regained that high on 7 October 2025.

All five ended with a new high inside the window. The longest wait, counted from the high, was the 2.14 years from the 2021 high.

A fall from a high is not the same as a loss on what you put in. At the bottom of the 2022 fall the AMD stake was worth $76,735, well above the $10,000 that went in.

The stake did dip below $10,000, though only at the start. Its lowest value was $8,635 on 10 November 2016. It closed below $10,000 on 14 of its 2,513 sessions, the first on 27 October 2016 and the last on 15 November 2016. That depends entirely on where the ten years start.

The stake peaked at $890,837 at the close on 6 October 2026, its highest of the decade. On 26 October it stood 18.2% below that.

We use AMD here because the question names AMD. The company was therefore picked after the outcome was already known.

We tested no other company. A page built the same way on a different name would start from a different outcome.

We ask the same question of Apple, Nvidia and Tesla. Each page stands on its own numbers. Nothing here says anything about which companies will do well from here.

AMD is one of the names covered by our Multi-model Signals, which give a daily long-or-flat call. This post uses nothing from them.

The same decade looks very different when money goes in steadily instead of all at once. Our post on investing $100 a month for ten years works through that case with the index. Our explainer on what a drawdown is covers how falls like these are measured.

One company, over one ten-year window, chosen after the fact: $10,000 became $728,779, with a 65.4% fall on the way and five falls of 30% or more. The same money in the index became $41,959.

The Academy is free to read, here on the web. The Long Trend, our free weekly letter, comes by email.

This explainer is part of the YX Insights Academy. Each one takes a single idea and checks it against real data.

The same approach runs through everything else we publish:

Good places to start on the website:

$728,779 on 26 October 2026, from a purchase at the close on 26 October 2016. AMD paid no dividend and had no share split in that window, so this is a plain price return, before any dealing costs or tax. It works out at 53.56% a year.

The same $10,000 in the index became $41,959 over the same days, or 15.42% a year. AMD ended at 17.37 times the index. Its volatility was 56.77% a year, against 18.00% for the index, so the larger result came with much bigger swings.

65.4%, between 29 November 2021 and 14 October 2022. The stake regained its old high on 18 January 2024. At the bottom of that fall it was still worth $76,735, because the fall was measured from a high well above the original $10,000.

Yes, early on. Its lowest value was $8,635 on 10 November 2016. It closed below $10,000 on 14 of the 2,513 sessions in the decade, the last on 15 November 2016. That depends entirely on where the ten years start.

DISCLAIMER: This article is strictly educational. Any information or analysis in this note is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice and nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.