Intel is back on top of the desktop CPU market: in the third quarter of 2026, the company took 70.1% of x86 desktop processor shipments, up from 65.1% in the previous quarter. AMD fell from 34.9% to 29.9% — the first time in years it has dropped below 30%. The figures come from Mercury Research and were reported on November 13 and 14.
A swing of about 5 percentage points
The shift was roughly 5 percentage points in each direction in a single quarter. Year over year, Intel also gained ground: it held 66.4% in the third quarter of 2025, against 33.6% for AMD. It is the first time since 2025 that Intel has grown its overall x86 share, which reached 66.1% in the quarter, up from 65.9% in the previous quarter.
In servers, AMD keeps gaining
The picture reverses in the server market, where AMD continues to gain ground: its share rose from 34.5% to 35.5% in the quarter, while Intel held 64.5% — down from 72.2% a year earlier. In other words, Intel's turnaround is concentrated in desktops; in servers, AMD keeps growing.
What the numbers really mean
The figures need to be read carefully: Mercury Research measures processor shipments, not retail sales or consumer preference. Moreover, the market shrank — Jon Peddie Research estimates 60.8 million client CPUs shipped in the quarter, down 3.4% from the previous quarter and 6.5% year over year. The two companies' quarterly filings with the SEC also show Intel's client CPU shipments fell 14% year over year, while AMD's rose 6%. In other words, Intel gained share in a smaller market.
Why the turnaround happened
Mercury Research itself acknowledges that the exact cause remains uncertain. The analysts' hypothesis is that weaker demand for laptop CPUs allowed Intel to redirect more supply toward desktops, and that the shortage of gaming GPUs weakened demand for gaming PCs — a segment where AMD is stronger. That is the analysts' interpretation, not a confirmation from the companies.
The quarter's financial results underline the contrast: AMD reported third-quarter revenue of US$ 13.4 billion, up 45% year over year, and Intel US$ 16.5 billion, up 21%. Intel CFO David Zinsner said the company expects the PC slowdown to continue at least through the first half of next year. The next test will be the fourth quarter, when holiday seasonality and component availability may shift the picture again.
Fontes: Wccftech — Intel Reclaims 70% Desktop CPU Market Share As AMD Falls Below 30% In Surprise Q3 2026 Turnaround; TechSpot — Intel stages surprise desktop CPU comeback as AMD's market share falls below 30%; HotHardware — AMD Snatches More Server CPU Share As Intel Rallies In Desktop Market; Guru3D — Intel rebounds in desktop CPU shipments as the PC market contracts; XenoSpectrum — Intel Regains Desktop CPU Share, Rising to 70.1% as AMD Slips to 29.9%; BigGo Finance — Intel Reclaims Desktop CPU Crown as AMD's Share Slips Below 30%.
Read also on Geekiki: Intel Crescent Island GPU: D270 with up to 480 GB of LPDDR5X for AI inference.
Image credit: Eric Gaba (Sting), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The photo shows an Intel Core i7-6700K processor (Skylake), launched in 2015.
Transparency: this article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, cross-checked against public posts on X and sources on the internet. We recommend consulting the original sources for more details.
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