The x86 processor market grew more than 10 percent sequentially in the second quarter of 2026, defying the usual seasonal dip, yet the desktop segment contracted sharply as component costs squeezed buyers. AMD turned that divergence into its highest-ever unit share of the overall x86 market, reaching 30.7 percent excluding embedded and console silicon and 34.1 percent with them included, according to Mercury Research. Intel lifted client and data center shipments after two supply-constrained quarters, and Apple moved large volumes of MacBook Neo processors, but neither could match AMD’s share momentum.
The quarter in numbers
Mercury Research principal analyst Dean McCarron said the quarter’s strength came from a surge in Intel mobile client supply and continued AMD product ramps, with Arm shipments also rising strongly. Year over year, however, the total CPU market shrank in units, dragged down by a collapse in IoT, SoC and embedded volumes, largely AMD’s shrinking game console business, and a substantial drop in desktop CPU shipments. Data center and notebook processors were the only major categories to post year-over-year unit growth.
Client market splits
In the client x86 space, Intel still commanded 69.7 percent of unit shipments but lost ground both sequentially and versus the prior year. AMD’s client share climbed to a record 30.3 percent, up from 29.6 percent in the first quarter and 23.9 percent a year earlier. The gains came on both sides of the client portfolio: notebook share edged from 28.3 percent to 28.9 percent even as Intel shipped millions more laptop CPUs, while desktop share rose from 33.2 percent to 34.9 percent despite AMD itself shipping fewer desktop processors, Intel’s desktop volumes simply fell faster.
Desktop pressure
Mercury Research labeled the desktop x86 market “ugly,” citing limited graphics card availability and elevated prices for motherboards, memory modules and SSDs as factors suppressing demand. The segment’s weakness was severe enough to offset the strength in servers and laptops on a year-over-year basis, even as the overall market rebounded quarter to quarter. Intel’s improved supply helped the client PC market recover from its recent trough, but the rebound did not translate into share retention.
What to watch
AMD’s 0.7 percentage-point sequential share gain and 6.5 percentage-point year-over-year advance suggest the company’s product cycle is still outpacing Intel’s volume recovery. The next test will be whether desktop demand stabilizes once component pricing eases, or whether the server and laptop segments can sustain the market’s top line without it.