Intel retakes some CPU market share from AMD as CPU shipments tick upwards

There’s some new cause for optimism in the struggling CPU market. Just last week I wrote about a hopeful rebound following the release of data by Jon Peddie Research. Now new figures from Mercury Research further point to signs of a market recovery in the second quarter of 2023.

According to Mercury Research (via Venture Beat), Intel gained three percentage points of market share, coinciding with a three percentage point drop for AMD. This includes all CPU shipments, including IoT, SoCs and the custom chips found inside consoles. Overall, Intel still leads strongly, with 68.4% of the overall x86 market share, compared to AMD’s 31.6% share. If SoC and IoT shipments are excluded, Intel leads by a whopping 82.6% to AMD’s 17.4%.

A large part of the recent CPU market woes are a result of excess inventory. When you have warehouses full of the things, you don’t need to make as many. Mercury Research president Dean McCarron says the inventory induced downturn is “probably a thing of the past”.