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Intel remains the dominant player in the x86 space when it comes to market share, both overall and in individual segments such as desktop, server, and mobile. However, AMD continues to chip away at its rival’s big lead, as
we had been seeing. According to the latest data by Mercury Research, AMD now accounts for almost a third of all x86 CPUs, with its share increasing 5.9% year-over-year and 1.5% sequentially to 30.9%.
That still positions Intel way out in front at a 69.1% share of the overall x86 CPU market, but that’s down from 75% in the same quarter a year ago. Clearly, AMD has been able to capitalize on Intel’s struggles in recent years, which has seen the
ousting of a prominent CEO (Pat Gelsinger) and significant layoffs amid ongoing restructuring efforts.
The good news for Intel is that it’s still in a dominant position. Additionally, Intel appears headed in the right direction under
CEO Lip-Bu Tan as the chip maker enters into the angstrom era. Intel’s made a bunch of big investments in its future, a lot of it centered on its foundry business. Likewise, major stakes by the likes of SoftBank, which recently announced a
$2 billion investment in Intel, and NVIDIA, which is
investing $5 billion and co-developing data center and PC chips with Intel, reflect major votes of confidence in the direction Intel is headed.
All that aside, AMD is firing on all cylinders.
“Both AMD and Intel saw significant [desktop CPU] growth in the third
quarter, but AMD’s growth rate was more than twice Intel’s and AMD
gained share as a result. AMD continued to see strong results in
its high-end Granite Ridge products, but we saw expansion in
mid-range processors for both AMD and Intel in the quarter.
Higher unit shipments enabled AMD to hit another record high
for desktop CPU revenues in the third quarter,” said Dean McCarron, president at Mercury Research.
AMD didn’t fare quest as well in mobile, with its share slightly declining 0.4% year-over-year to 21.9%, though it’s up sequentially from 20.6%. It’s a much bigger gap between AMD and Intel, though, with the latter sitting at a 78.1% share of the mobile CPU market (excluding IoT).
The server market is where the most enticing margins can be found, and while server CPU shipments were relatively flat overall, AMD was able to hit another record high with its Turin core ramp.
“AMD’s [server CPU] shipments were modestly higher and Intel’s modestly lower,
resulting in AMD’s server share growing a small amount
sequentially…On-year results continue to move strongly to AMD due to much
stronger growth than Intel — but both suppliers did see unit
growth compared to a year ago,” McCarron said.
Looking strictly at the server CPU segment, AMD grew its share 3.5% year-over-year to 27.8%. That’s a nice gain, though obviously Intel is still way out in front at 72.2%.
It will be interesting to see how the landscape shifts over the next year. We’re also curious to see what impact Arm has on the marketplace. According to latest
Mercury Research data, Arm activity was modestly higher in client this last quarter, mostly from Apple’s growth and an increase in Arm-based Chromebook shipments.
Charts courtesy of Mercury Research
