The fourth quarter 2021 Mercury Research CPU market share figures are in, and AMD now has a 25.6 per cent share of the entire x86 market, its greatest share ever, thanks in part to growing gaming console shipments. AMD’s previous overall record was 25.3 per cent, which is set 15 years ago in 2006. Meanwhile, Intel has increased its market share in desktop and laptop PCs, recouping some of AMD’s losses. Intel, on the other hand, continues to lose market share in the lucrative server industry.
Intel’s unit gain isn’t wholly surprising considering that AMD appears to be more hampered by shortages, pushing the company to focus on its higher-margin products to maximise profitability. However, this limits shipment numbers in some categories, particularly because AMD must also meet the unprecedented demand for console processors, which was a major contributor to the company’s record overall market share in the quarter.
In any case, AMD’s concentration on higher-end processors has helped the business grow revenue share in the desktop PC market, with CEO Lisa Su stating on the company’s last earnings call that “we believe we gained client processor revenue share for the seventh straight quarter.”
Despite supply difficulties, AMD’s server business continues to thrive, with the 11th consecutive quarter of server CPU growth. During this time, AMD increased its market share by 0.6 percentage points, reaching a new high of 10.7%.
However, as we’ll see in more detail in the server breakdown below, McCarron’s figures encompass all sorts of servers, whereas some publications that focus on the competitive environment narrow down AMD’s market share to greater levels. For example, according to India’s share report, AMD’s data centre share is 18.3 per cent, whereas Mercury researches are 10.7 per cent.
According to Mercury Research, the market share jockeying is taking place amid an all-time high for the x86 CPU market in terms of both units shipped and revenue earned across all sectors. This benefits both AMD and Intel, as overall sales for x86 chips climbed by 10.7% to $74 billion in 2021, up from $66.6 billion the previous year.
Expanding the industry to include all x86 CPUs and Arm processors (including Apple’s M1-based Macs), but excluding IoT and consoles, the market shipped more than 500 million units in 2021, with x86 chips accounting for 471 million.
According to Mercury Research, the market share jockeying is taking place amid an all-time high for the x86 CPU market in terms of both units shipped and revenue earned across all sectors. This benefits both AMD and Intel, as overall sales for x86 chips climbed by 10.7% to $74 billion in 2021, up from $66.6 billion the previous year.
Expanding the industry to include all x86 CPUs and Arm processors (including Apple’s M1-based Macs), but excluding IoT and consoles, the market shipped more than 500 million units in 2021, with x86 chips accounting for 471 million.
During the quarter, Intel’s previous-generation Rocket Lake and Comet Lake CPUs continued to sell the most units in commercial desktop PCs. Nonetheless, Alder Lake has started to have a significant impact on the consumer desktop PC industry. Furthermore, Intel recently released the remainder of its Alder Lake processors, which include the most popular variants.
AMD’s server market share estimations are based on IDC’s forecasts, although they only account for single- and dual-socket servers, networking infrastructure, and Xeon D processors (edge). As a result, Mercury’s figures differ from AMD’s, which estimate a greater market share. “Mercury Research’s server unit estimate captures all x86 server-class CPUs, regardless of device (server, network, or storage), whereas IDC’s estimated 1P [single-socket] and 2P [two-socket] TAM [Total Addressable Market] only includes traditional servers,” AMD says.
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