AMD gains CPU share as Intel fights supply squeeze • The Register

Intel continues to lose market share to rival AMD across server, desktop, and mobile processors, and this has been noticeable in PCs thanks to supply constraints on Chipzilla's processors.

The latest figures from PC component watcher Mercury Research, covering Q4 of 2025, indicate that AMD now accounts for about 36 percent of the CPUs going into desktop PC systems, quite a jump from just under 27 percent for the same time last year. With mobile chips for laptops, the gain isn't quite so noticeable, with 26 percent coming from AMD in Q4, up from 23.8 percent for the same period a year ago. The flip side of that is that Intel is still filling 74 percent of mobile PCs.

This is despite Intel suffering supply constraints on client processors due to a decision the company made earlier in the year to reallocate manufacturing capacity to output more server chips. This hurt its ability to build and sell processors for PCs.

As a consequence, total x86 processor unit shipments declined during the last quarter of 2025, which was unusual as the fourth quarter would normally see the highest sequential growth in unit shipments for the year, Mercury says.

But it wasn't all going AMD's way as shipments of the firm's gaming SoCs declined as expected. This is because we are said to be nearing the end of the current console cycle, so demand drops off in anticipation of new models.

Server CPU shipments were up strongly during Q4, according to Mercury, with Intel's deliveries growing at nearly double the seasonal average, but AMD saw growth at more than triple the seasonal average. For AMD, its 5th Gen Epyc chips accounted for more than 50 percent of server revenues for the first time during the quarter, and Intel's Emerald Rapids 5th Gen family is also believed to have taken the lead from the Sapphire Rapids 4th Gen portfolio to become Intel's best-selling server parts.

When it comes to share, Intel still takes the lion's portion at just over 71 percent of the server processor market. But AMD can take solace as its figure of 28.8 percent means it is closing in on a third market share, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from the 25.7 percent it stood at a year ago.

So it doesn't look too bad for Intel, all things considered, which is odd as the company went to the trouble of sending us comments relating to these latest Mercury Research figures. For the record, Chipzilla wants you to know that it is "leaning hard into a simplified, accelerated roadmap – backed by strong server demand and major client portfolio updates – to stabilize and strengthen share as we move further into 2026."

Mercury says that there is a larger than usual uncertainty in its estimates covering Arm-based CPU shipments into the PC market for this quarter. It believes that these systems have declined to 13.3 percent in Q4 2025 from 13.7 percent in the preceding quarter. However, the total share, including Arm servers against all x86 shipments, is estimated to stand at 12 percent, up from 11.7 percent earlier in the year.

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