Chipmaker AMD just scored a big deal with Meta

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is about to enter the metaverse.

The chip giant said its EPYC chips were selected by Meta (formerly known as Facebook) to help power its data centers at its virtual Accelerated Data Center Premiere event Monday. AMD explained the two companies worked together to develop a high-performance, power-efficient processor based on the company's 3rd Generation EPYC processor.

"Adding Meta is certainly a very significant piece," AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su said on Yahoo Finance Live.

Shares of AMD shot higher by 10% in afternoon trading.

The high-profile win accompanied several announcements from AMD, including some specifics around upcoming EPYC processors codenamed “Genoa” and “Bergamo.” AMD dubbed the Genoa processor as the "world’s highest performance processor for general purpose computing."

Su told Yahoo Finance Live we are living through a high-performance computing "megacycle" that shows no signs of slowing down.

AMD continues to be one of the hottest tech stocks in the market as it wrestles market share away from rival Intel.

Shares of AMD are up 65% year to date, out-performing the Nasdaq Composite's 24% gain. Intel's stock is up 2% on the year, while Nvidia has skyrocketed 127%.

The company's third quarter performance helps to explain the stock's meteoric ascent.  

Sales rose 54% from a year ago to $4.3 billion. Earnings per share surged 134% year-over-year. 

"We believe AMD will continue to gain material server/PC share in 2021/2022driven by performance leadership while Intel continues to struggle on10/7nm," wrote Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis in a recent note to clients. 

Curtis rates AMD's stock at an Overweight (equivalent to a Buy rating) with a $135 price target. 

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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