Technology

Burst layoffs to polish up earnings reports are "fine" (in terms of stocks), but hemorrhaging workers when your company is already in hot water for product quality complaints smells of "We're really desperate to make our reports not look devastating". From a stupid monkey brain point of view, it sounds like they're throwing sailors overboard to avoid sinking and I wouldn't want to be a passenger and risk being next, so I'd try to sell what shares I have before they're worthless.

I don't know what heuristics professional traders go with, but I imagine they would follow a more complex and nuanced logic along those same lines. Either way, if enough people do that, it compounds.

It's because the stock market is closer to a casino than a place where fair valuations of businesses are made.

Also, market cap is just the latest trade price times the total number of shares. It doesn't mean that anyone is willing to buy or sell the entire business for that amount, just that some shares were traded at a price that extrapolates to that.

It's kinda like getting an A on your first assignment in grade 1 and assuming that means you're a straight A student and will maintain that until you finish your doctorate. Or getting an F and assuming you might as well just drop out.

The closest thing to reality market cap really says is that investors who are making current trades believe that AMD will surpass Intel at some point. Or that they aren't comparing either company directly to the other and just go by feeling plus the price history. "I feel more confident in AMD today, therefore the price should be higher than it was yesterday. I feel less confident in Intel today, therefore the price should be lower than it was yesterday." It doesn't even really matter if yesterday's price was accurate, it's all just relative to itself and fed by fear and greed.

Unless the person running that project is owed a personal favor I don't think there's a chance in hell it's going to survive. I'm pretty sure they're running the video card side of the business at a substantial loss trying to catch up with market share and tech.

They could, but the US government has a strong interest in keeping them around. Not only do they do a huge amount of development, and not just on CPUs, but they also have the largest share of government purchasing by far.