Intel’s share in the x86 CPU market for PCs and servers reportedly fell under 70 percent for the first time ever since the year 1995. According to a report by Mercury Research, first quoted by CRN, the Intel numbers mark a 31-year low for the semiconductor giant, even as AI spending fueled historic growth for its data center business. Dean McCarron, president of Prescott, Arizona-based CPU-tracking company Mercury Research, confirmed the point about Intel’s 31-year low to CRN in an email following the release of his second-quarter CPU market share report comparing Intel and AMD.Asked to comment, an Intel spokesperson referred CRN to record year-over-year sales growth for its Data Center Group and momentum in its client business unit touted in its latest earnings report as well as a growing number of long-term supply agreements.As per the Mercury report, Intel’s overall x86 CPU market share fell 6.5 points year over year and dropped by under 1 point sequentially to 69.3 percent as AMD’s position grew just as much to 30.7 percent, a new record for the rival, the researcher said.
Market share of Intel and AMD in various sub-segments now stands as follows:
* Desktop CPU: Intel at 65.1 percent vs. AMD at 34.9 percent* Laptop: Intel at 71.1 percent vs. AMD at 28.9 percentThese figures were based on total CPU shipments for PCs and servers, not including semicustom, embedded and IoT products. If those latter three segments were included, Intel’s share for the second quarter would stand at 65.9 percent, down 4.6 points year over year and down 1.5 points sequentially, against AMD’s 34.1 percent, according to Mercury.One thing that is said to have helped AMD was “better than expected” shipments of the company’s system-on-chips for gaming consoles. Unlike AMD, Intel does not have a big console business for its chips.Coming back, in the PC market, AMD’s share grew by 6.4 percent year-over-year to a record 30.3 percent against Intel’s 69.7 percent. What also needs to be noted here is that total desktop PC shipments declined by 20 percent year-over-year in the second quarter.
How the ‘ugliest’ segment of the market fared
Overall, the report describes the desktop X86 CPU market as “ugly.” Hit by limited availability of graphics cards and high prices of components like motherboards, memory modules, and SSDs, the desktop CPU market was particularly weak in the second quarter and shrunk by over 20% year-on-year (YoY) as well as quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) due to seasonality. According to Mercury Research, both AMD and Intel suffered significant annual shipment declines, but AMD all in all held up better.
