AMD Achieves Over 30% Market Share in Client CPUs, Closing Gap with Intel

AMD has reached a milestone, surpassing 30% of the x86 client CPU market for the first time, according to Mercury Research. In the second quarter of 2023, AMD's share of this market, which includes both desktop and mobile CPUs, rose to 30.3%, while Intel's share remained at 69.7%. This marks a significant increase from two years ago when AMD held only 21.1%.

The increase in AMD's client CPU market share is attributed to recent growth in notebook PC processor shipments, complementing their already robust desktop CPU sales, which have consistently exceeded 30% in recent quarters. In Q2 2023, AMD's desktop CPU share was recorded at 34.9%, while its mobile processors accounted for 28.9% of x86 shipment volumes.

Dean McCarron, President of Mercury Research, clarified that the client share represents the combined total of desktop and mobile CPU shipments. Despite these gains, AMD faces competition from newer players like Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek, which are introducing Arm-based processors for laptops that are not included in Mercury Research's x86 tracking.

The report also highlights that the estimated share of Arm-based PC client CPUs is projected to reach 15.3% by the second quarter of 2026, up 0.9 points from previous records. This indicates a steady increase from an estimated share of around 13% in past quarters.

In a concerning trend for the PC industry, Mercury Research reported a significant decline in desktop x86 CPU shipments, showing an annual decrease of over 20%. The report described the situation as "ugly," noting that seasonal factors typically reduce desktop CPU demand in the second quarter, but ongoing supply shortages of memory and graphics components have exacerbated this decline.

Mercury Research indicates that rising prices for RAM, storage, and high-end graphics cards, linked to restricted supplies, are adversely affecting demand for desktop PCs and consequently, desktop CPUs. This decline follows a nearly 20% year-over-year drop in desktop CPU shipments recorded in the first quarter.