The second quarter of 2026 was quite favorable for CPU suppliers, as unit growth was 10% sequentially, with data center and laptop processor shipments more than offsetting declining sales of desktop CPUs and lower-end products for embedded and IoT applications, according to a new report by Mercury Research. AMD continued to gain market share, so its unit shipments and share reached a new record during the quarter; Intel managed to increase shipments of its client and data center CPUs; whereas Apple sold a boatload of processors in its popular MacBook Neo laptops. Overall, the report describes the desktop X86 CPU market as "ugly."
Segment |
AMD Q2 2026 |
Intel Q2 2026 |
AMD QoQ |
AMD Q1 2026 |
Intel Q2 2026 |
AMD Q2 2025 |
Intel Q2 2025 |
AMD YoY |
Overall x86 |
30.70% |
69.30% |
0.70% |
30.00% |
70.00% |
24.20% |
75.80% |
6.50% |
Client |
30.30% |
69.70% |
0.60% |
29.60% |
70.40% |
23.90% |
76.10% |
6.40% |
Desktop |
34.90% |
65.10% |
1.80% |
33.20% |
66.80% |
32.20% |
67.80% |
2.70% |
Mobile |
28.90% |
71.10% |
0.60% |
28.30% |
71.70% |
20.60% |
79.40% |
8.40% |
Server |
34.50% |
65.50% |
1.30% |
33.20% |
66.80% |
27.30% |
72.70% |
7.30% |
All CPUs incl. IoT/SoCs |
34.10% |
65.90% |
1.50% |
32.60% |
67.40% |
29.40% |
70.60% |
4.70% |
