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Intel reclaims overall CPU market share for the first time since 2025
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Shipments of x86 CPUs declined quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year in the third quarter as demand for client processors dropped sharply due to high component prices, while server CPU unit sales grew by a whopping 20% year-over-year, according to the latest report from Mercury Research. Intel regained overall CPU market share from AMD for the first time since Q2 2025, largely due to surprisingly strong performance in desktop PCs. Meanwhile, AMD continued to set new records in the mobile and server CPU segments, the report claims. In total, the industry supplied 68.93 million x86 CPUs, Jon Peddie Research reports.
The overall CPU market contracted both sequentially and year-over-year in unit shipments in Q3 2026, after a much stronger-than-expected second quarter, according to Mercury Research. AMD and Intel shipped 60.8 million client CPUs and 8.13 million data center processors during the quarter. One thing to keep in mind about the reports from JPR and Mercury Research is that they count CPU shipments, which happen months before those CPUs are sold in actual systems.
"After a far better than expected second quarter market for client processors, the third quarter PC CPU market declined far more than expected, entirely due to a downturn in mobile CPUs — this was the same segment that was unexpectedly higher last quarter, hinting that part of the downturn may have been due to CPU demand pulling in sales from the third quarter," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.
"Both Intel and AMD indicated in their earnings results that there was a rapid softening in PC demand late in the third quarter that impacted client processor shipments and that the outlook for client CPUs in the fourth quarter will be a decline in excess of 20%. Unlike client CPUs, however, server processors continued to grow strongly in the past quarter, as did embedded CPUs."
Quarter over quarter, the decline was driven primarily by significantly lower demand for mobile processors, as 86 notebook CPU shipments dropped by more than 10%. By contrast, desktop CPU shipments recovered, largely thanks to Intel, while server and embedded CPU shipments continued to grow strongly. Excluding IoT, semi-custom SoCs, and embedded products, both AMD and Intel shipped fewer x86 processors than in the previous quarter, though AMD's decline was larger than Intel's.
Compared with the third quarter of 2025, CPU shipments declined across all major market segments except servers. Desktop and notebook CPU shipments decreased due to weaker PC demand amid rising component costs, particularly memory prices. Embedded processor and semi-custom SoC shipments also declined, primarily due to AMD's shrinking game console business. By contrast, fueled by the ongoing buildout of AI infrastructure, server CPU shipments increased by more than 20% YoY, their highest annual growth rate in nearly five years.
"Client CPU shipments softened in Q3 as OEMs kept inventories lean and the DIY channel remained weak," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research. "Server CPUs continued growing, with AMD gaining share and AI-related demand supporting the market. We expect PC conditions to remain difficult into the first half of 2027."
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Due to weakness in the client PC space, AMD's overall x86 market share (excluding embedded and semi-custom SoC) declined by 0.6% QoQ for the first time in years, but still grew by a significant 4.5% YoY, according to Mercury Research.