According to data from market research firm Mercury Research in the second quarter of 2026, AMD’s market share in the x86 client processor market across mobile devices and desktop computers reached 30.3% for the first time, while Intel’s was 69.7%. Two years ago, the company’s market share was only 21.1%. At the same time, processors based on the Arm architecture began to encroach on x86 territory – their share of all client PC shipments increased by 0.9 percentage points to 15.3% in the second quarter.
Image source: AMD
In recent quarters, AMD’s market share in desktop processor shipments has exceeded 30%. Now, the company’s notebook processor shipments appear to be growing as well, boosting its overall client processor shipments. In the second quarter of this year, AMD’s desktop processor market share was 34.9%, and its mobile processors accounted for 28.9% of x86 shipments.
The processor market faces new competition from Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek, which are releasing Arm-based notebook processors, but that’s not reflected in Mercury Research’s x86 data. The company predicts that the share of Arm-based PC client processors will reach 15.3% in the second quarter of 2026, an annual increase of 0.9 percentage points and a record high. In previous quarters, the share of Arm-based PC client processors was approximately 13%.
A study by Mercury Research found that x86 desktop processor shipments continue to decline, with annual declines of more than 20%. According to the company, “Desktop X86 processor shipments in the second quarter were extremely unsatisfactory”. A report from Mercury Research suggests that the main reason for the decline is the ongoing memory shortage.
Image source: Mercury Research
Component shortages have caused significant increases in prices not only for RAM and storage, but also for high-performance graphics cards that require large amounts of display. High PC prices and limited graphics card supply have a significant impact on the final demand for desktop PCs and the final demand for PC and laptop processors.
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