AMD is gaining share in several x86 processor segments, but Intel still supplies the majority of the x86 market. That can happen while some CPU sales are weak: market share measures a company’s portion of a market, not whether the market itself is growing. In Q2 2026, total processor shipments rose sharply from the previous quarter, even as desktop CPU shipments fell by more than 20% year over year, according to Mercury Research figures reported by Tom’s Hardware.
What the latest figures say about Intel and AMD
The reported results point to a market moving in different directions, not a simple handover from Intel to AMD. Mercury Research estimated AMD’s overall x86 unit share at 30.7% in Q2 2026, its highest share to date. That leaves Intel with the majority, but the AMD figure alone is not a separately reported Intel share. The available reporting does not specify a geographic breakdown for this overall x86 estimate.
“Unit share” means the proportion of processors shipped, not the proportion of sales revenue or company income. The distinction matters because a vendor can sell fewer, more expensive processors and earn a larger share of revenue without leading in units—or ship more lower-priced units without leading in revenue.
| Measure | Reported result | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Overall x86 unit share | AMD: 30.7% in Q2 2026; Mercury Research estimate reported by Tom’s Hardware | A record AMD share in the reported x86 market; Intel remained the majority supplier. |
| Client CPU unit share | AMD: 29.6% in Q1 2026, up from 24.1% in Q1 2025; Mercury Research estimate reported by Tom’s Hardware | AMD’s share of client processors rose year over year. |
| Mobile CPU revenue share | AMD: 28.9% in Q1 2026; Mercury Research estimate reported by Tom’s Hardware | A revenue-share measure for mobile CPUs, not a unit-share figure. |
| Desktop share | AMD: 33.6% in Q3 2025, up from 32.2% in Q2 2025; Intel: 66.4% in Q3 2025; Mercury Research estimates reported by Tom’s Hardware | A segment-specific desktop share comparison for those quarters. |
| Server x86 revenue share | AMD: 46.2% in Q1 2026; Mercury Research estimate in cited coverage | AMD approached half of server x86 revenue, but this does not mean it held that share of server processor units. |
These figures cover different quarters and different measures. They should not be combined into a single trend line or treated as interchangeable estimates of “the CPU market.”
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Why shipments can be sluggish while share rises
Market share is a ratio: a vendor’s shipments divided by the relevant market’s shipments. If the market contracts, a vendor can still gain share when its shipments fall less than a rival’s. It can also gain in one segment while losing volume in another. Share can therefore rise even when demand for a particular type of PC is weak.
The Q2 2026 figures illustrate the difference between overall processor shipments and desktop demand. Mercury Research’s Dean McCarron said that total x86 and Arm CPU shipments rose by more than 10% sequentially in Q2, a much stronger increase than the slight seasonal decline he said was typical. In contrast, desktop CPU shipments were down by more than 20% year over year, with high component costs and weak demand for high-end gaming PCs associated with the decline. Sequential growth compares one quarter with the immediately preceding quarter; year-over-year change compares it with the same quarter a year earlier.
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AMD’s overall x86 share reached a reported record during that mixed quarter. Its gains in client processors and its position in server revenue also show why desktop shipments alone cannot explain the company’s total share. The available figures do not provide enough detail to calculate how much of AMD’s overall share gain came from each segment.
Why desktop demand is under pressure
For desktop buyers, higher component costs raise the price of a complete PC, not just the CPU. Memory constraints can add further cost or limit the configurations available, while scarce consumer GPUs make high-end gaming builds harder to assemble at attractive prices. Those pressures can suppress purchases even when processors themselves remain available.
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Demand is also competing with a shift in investment toward AI accelerators. Intel’s 2025 annual-report discussion of market trends said organizations prioritized “GPU systems offered by certain of our competitors to handle compute-heavy generative AI workloads, often at the expense of CPU investment.” That describes a pressure on CPU investment in some workloads; it does not mean conventional processors are no longer needed or that all CPU demand is falling.
Where AMD’s gains are strongest—and what each figure means
Client and mobile processors
Mercury Research estimated AMD’s client CPU unit share at 29.6% in Q1 2026, compared with 24.1% in Q1 2025. Those are unit-share estimates across the client category, rather than a measure limited to desktop PCs. Separately, AMD’s mobile CPU revenue share was 28.9% in Q1 2026. Because the mobile figure measures revenue, it cannot be used as a substitute for mobile unit share.
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Desktop processors
The desktop comparison available here is from Q3 2025: Mercury Research estimated AMD at 33.6%, up from 32.2% in Q2 2025, while Intel held 66.4% in Q3. Tom’s Hardware connected AMD’s desktop gains with the popularity of Ryzen 9000-series processors. That historical desktop-share figure should not be mistaken for a Q2 2026 desktop result; the Q2 2026 evidence cited here concerns the sharp year-over-year fall in desktop CPU shipments and AMD’s overall x86 share.
Server processors
AMD’s estimated 46.2% share of server x86 revenue in Q1 2026 signals a strong position in that market, but it is a revenue measure. It does not establish AMD’s share of server units, nor does it say what share of all data-center computing AMD supplied. Intel launched Xeon 6+ in Q2 2026, an enterprise product relevant to server competition, but a launch alone does not establish a change in market share.
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Why company revenue does not settle the market-share question
Intel reported $16.1 billion in company revenue for Q2 2026. That is revenue for the company, not a CPU-only sales figure and not a processor unit-share estimate. AMD reported gaming-segment revenue of $1.5 billion for the six months ended June 27, 2026, compared with $1.8 billion for the six months ended a year earlier. That segment covers gaming revenue over six months; it is not directly comparable with Intel’s quarterly total-company revenue.
To compare Intel and AMD fairly, first identify the question: unit share or revenue share; desktop, notebook/client, or server; and quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year change. Then check whether the figure describes conventional CPU shipments, a broader processor market, or company revenue. Without those distinctions, apparently conflicting numbers may simply be answering different questions.
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