Intel has found some data centre momentum, but Chipzilla’s x86 market share has still sunk to a 31-year low.
According to CRN Chipzilla’s second quarter looked healthier on the surface, with data centre revenue up 59 per cent year-on-year. The problem is that AMD kept taking ground while Intel tried to convince everyone the comeback tour had started.
According to Mercury Research, Intel’s share of the x86 CPU market fell below 70 per cent for the first time since 1995. Chipzilla dropped 6.5 points year-on-year and less than one point sequentially to 69.3 per cent. Once semi-custom, embedded and IoT chips are counted, the picture gets nastier for Chipzilla. Its second-quarter share falls to 65.9 per cent, down 4.6 points year-on-year and 1.5 points quarter-on-quarter, against AMD’s 34.1 per cent.
The server market is where things get more interesting. Mercury puts Chipzilla at 65.5 per cent of server CPUs, with AMD at 34.5 per cent. That still makes Intel the larger supplier, but the accounting is doing some of the work. AMD does not count embedded CPUs shipped for networking and storage in its data centre segment, while Chipzilla does.
Adjust for that difference and AMD’s server CPU share likely rose 9.2 points year-on-year to 46.4 per cent, leaving Chipzilla at 53.6 per cent.
Mercury Research president Dean McCarron said the difference matters because the headline server split understates AMD’s position. Server CPU shipments grew nearly 20 per cent year-on-year in the quarter, with both sides expecting demand to stay strong.
A spokesperson for Intel said: “Our top priority is to ramp capacity and improve factory output as quickly as possible to support customer demand even as we work to improve our competitive roadmap,” the representative said.
Jon Peddie Research figures broadly tell the same story. Its server CPU chart showed AMD rising from 27 per cent in the second quarter of 2025 to 33.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, while Chipzilla slid from 73 per cent to 67 per cent.
The PC market was not much kinder. AMD’s share grew 6.4 points year-on-year to a record 30.3 per cent, while Chipzilla sat at 69.7 per cent. Desktop CPU shipments fell by more than 20 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter. McCarron described the desktop CPU segment as “best described as ugly.”
In desktops, Chipzilla held 65.1 per cent against AMD’s 34.9 per cent. In laptops, Intel had 71.1 per cent while AMD reached 28.9 per cent after growing share faster in mobile kit. Chipzilla has been trying to sound upbeat about its future manufacturing plans. Its 14A node is now expected to start risk production in 2027, while high-volume production sits further out in 2028.
The outfit has hinted it could hike capex “significantly” next year, suggesting it can see confirmed orders somewhere in the fog.
