Intel’s x86 CPU market share drops to 31-year low

Intel's ↘ 1.15% overall x86 CPU market share has fallen below 70 percent for the first time since 1995, dropping to 69.3 percent in the second quarter of 2026, according to a new report from Mercury Research. AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ↗ 0.79% reached a record 30.7 percent share, gaining 6.5 points year over year.crn

The milestone comes even as Intel's Data Center Group posted a record 59 percent year-over-year revenue growth in the second quarter, reported in late July. Despite that demand surge, AMD managed to grow server CPU shipments faster during the same period.crn

Server Market Narrows

In the server CPU segment, AMD's share grew 7.3 points year over year to 34.5 percent against Intel's 65.5 percent. However, Mercury Research president Dean McCarron noted an accounting disparity: AMD does not count embedded CPUs shipped for networking and storage applications in its data center segment, while Intel does. Adjusting for this difference, AMD's actual server CPU share likely stands at 46.4 percent versus Intel's 53.6 percent — a 9.2-point year-over-year gain for AMD.wccftech+1

Server CPU shipments overall grew nearly 20 percent year over year, with both companies expecting demand to remain strong for the rest of the year, according to McCarron.crn

Desktop Weakness, Laptop Gains

The desktop CPU segment was notably weak, with shipments declining more than 20 percent year over year — what McCarron described as "best described as ugly." He attributed the downturn to higher PC prices and limited GPU supplies caused by the AI infrastructure boom, which has prompted component manufacturers to prioritize data center production over consumer PCs.tech4gamers+1

AMD's desktop share grew 2.7 points year over year to 34.9 percent, with Intel holding 65.1 percent. Both companies saw declines, though Intel's were steeper.crn

The laptop segment saw the fastest AMD share growth, with the company reaching 28.9 percent — up 8.4 points year over year — against Intel's 71.1 percent. Total mobile shipments were "up strongly on a sequential basis," McCarron wrote, contrasting with earlier warnings about client segment weakness.crn

Competitive Pressures Mount

An Intel spokesperson told CRN that the company's "top priority is to ramp capacity and improve factory output as quickly as possible to support customer demand." Both Intel and AMD also face growing competition from Arm-based processors, including Nvidia's ↘ 1.27% Vera CPU for servers and Qualcomm's ↗ 0.87% Snapdragon chips for PCs, as well as Apple's ↗ 0.94% M-series processors and custom designs from hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services Amazon.com, Inc. ↘ 0.98%.crn