AMD & Intel Remain Hopeful For Bounceback In 2H 2023, Red Team Continues Gaining Market Share

Mercury Research has published its latest CPU market share report which shows AMD continuing to lead against Intel in the first quarter of 2023.

Mercury Research recently posted its CPU market share report covering AMD's current market share for both quarters and segments, ranging between the third quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2023. The segments cover desktop, mobile, server, and overall x86 processors. The graphs show that despite the current marketplace for PC components, including CPUs, still in decline, there is a slow rise.

Over the last few quarters, it has been reported that manufacturers have been required to under-ship their inventories due to a lack of demand in hopes of even the excessive inventories still waiting to hit shelves. AMD's CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, has mentioned, "...the first quarter was the bottom for our client processor business," while Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, has stated that his company is "seeing increasing stability in the PC market with inventory corrections largely proceeding as we had expected."

For AMD, the company witnessed a 64% drop in sales of processors for consumers, while Intel reported a 36% decline. While that may differ dramatically between the two companies, Intel's loss percentage is the most considerable amount in the company's history. In contrast, AMD witnessed a loss but it was less dramatic for the company. Both AMD and Intel CEOs feel that, while the current market is significantly declining, both companies expect a slow recovery later this year.

Semiconductor analyst Sravan Kundojjala took to Twitter and showed data that compiled Intel and AMD's earnings that were reported for all individual segments. During 2022, Kundojjala's data indicates that AMD saw an apex revenue share of 21.9% in its PC market holdings during quarter two of 2022, while its data center shares topped at 30.3% in the same year's fourth quarter. The analyst notes that continuing inventory corrections has caused "a lot of noise in this data."

Paul Alcorn of Tom's Hardware reached out to Intel about the current market's standing:

Intel is seeing increasing stability in the data center and PC markets. We remain confident in our growth projections as the market recovers over the second half of 2023. Our client computing business continues to execute on its roadmap as we ramp Meteor Lake production ahead of its 2H 2023 launch, [..] with a strengthening roadmap and excellent execution, we believe you will see our market share grow as we deliver process and product leadership to the market. Demand for 4th Gen Intel Xeon processors continues to be strong [..].

— Intel spokeperson

Tom's Hardware notes that 80% of Intel's PC, mobile, and data shares have stayed maintained during this plummet. However, AMD and the launch of the 7000X3D processor series, which has outsold Intel's Raptor Lake chips, still cannot compare to the lead that Intel currently holds, with one exception. Intel's price margin is under attack from AMD as Team Blue has had to take significant risks to lower pricing on data center and consumer PC processors. This will allow AMD to acquire more sales thanks to the increased performance of its latest chips.

Arm remains a threat in the x86 category, especially with the Apple M-series CPUs increasingly competing against Intel and AMD. The company only dropped 1.3% in the last quarter of 2022.

Mercury Research's updates tend to be skewed as the firm only follows chips sold into the supply chain and not what is sold at retail levels. Alcorn posted the available results from the firm in a recent post, stipulating that these numbers will be updated shortly.

AMD commented to Tom's Hardware on Mercury Research's data:

Mercury Research captures all x86 server-class processors in their server unit estimate, regardless of device (server, network or storage), whereas the estimated 1P [single-socket] and 2P [two-socket] TAM [Total Addressable Market] provided by IDC only includes traditional servers.

— AMD spokesperson

News Source: Tom's Hardware