AMD Increases X86 Market Share in Client CPUs
According to data compiled by Mercury Research, the market share of AMD within the x86 client CPU sector—which encompasses both desktop and mobile processors—has reached 30.3% for the first time. This figure was recorded for the second quarter (Q2) of the current year, placing AMD at 30.3% and Intel at 69.7% in the shipment volume.
Mercury Research noted in a recent report that this represents a substantial increase compared to two years prior, when AMD’s market share stood at 21.1%. The growth is attributed not only to gains in desktop shipments, which had surpassed 30% in recent quarters, but also to an uptick in notebook PC processor volumes, boosting the overall client CPU total.
Broader Industry Trends and Competitors
Mercury Research President Dean McCarron clarified that the client share calculation involves only the combined desktop and mobile CPUs. For Q2, AMD’s desktop CPU share was recorded at 34.9%, while its mobile processors accounted for 28.9% of the total x86 shipment volume.
Despite AMD’s gains, the processor landscape is facing increasing competition from manufacturers utilizing Arm-based processors, including Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek. These processors, used in laptops, are not tracked within Mercury Research’s x86 monitoring data.
However, the research firm did provide a forecast for the broader market, estimating that the Arm-inclusive PC client CPU share for the second quarter of 2026 will be 15.3%. This marks a significant increase of 0.9 percentage points from previous quarters, setting a new record high for the segment.
Concerns Over Desktop x86 Shipments
In a contrasting development, the report highlighted continued weakness in the desktop x86 CPU market. Mercury Research reported that desktop x86 CPU shipments are experiencing a “large on-year downturn in excess of 20 percent.” The firm described the desktop x86 CPU shipments for the second quarter as “ugly.”
While declines in desktop CPU demand are often seasonal during the second quarter, Mercury Research suggested that the ongoing memory crunch may be a major contributing factor to the slump. The shortage has caused prices for not only RAM and storage but also higher-end graphics cards—components that require large amounts of video memory—to escalate significantly.
“We believe that higher PC prices and limited GPU supplies are having a significant impact on end demand for desktop PCs, and thus desktop CPUs, as well,” the research firm stated.
