AMD is continuing to make inroad against Intel in the server market, chipping away (pun intended) at the latter’s lead.
Intel was once the undisputed king of the semiconductor market. While that was true across the entire PC industry, it was especially true in the server market, where the company’s market share was 98% as recently as five years ago. According to Mercury Research (via Network World), as of Q122, AMD’s server market share is now 11.6%, dropping Intel’s to 88.4%.
AMD has its Epyc line of processors to thank for the success it’s enjoying.
“It’s been a long, gradual increase. If you look at the data set now, AMD has completed their third consecutive year of having on-quarter gains in share,” said Dean McCarron, president of Mercury Research. “The main driver there is that AMD has its Epyc processors … and each generation has been a little bit more successful than the prior one.”
See also: Linus Torvolds Switches to AMD, Slams Intel
AMD’s reputation for consistently delivering quality products is also helping the company gain new business.
“This isn’t the first time [AMD]’s had success in the market, they had success more than a decade ago, and now they’re getting back in,” McCarron added. “The key here is that they’ve established a pattern of delivery on product reliability.”
McCarron’s comments confirm the issues Intel has had in recent years. Dell, one of Intel’s most loyal partners, had to look to AMD in 2019 as a result of Intel’s supply issues. Similarly, Cloudflare pivoted away from Intel in late 2021 because AMD’s Epyc processors were much more energy efficient. Google Cloud also moved to AMD, thanks to the performance gains it offered over Intel.
AMD’s performance has also helped it achieve the highest share of the x86 processor market in its history, according to TechSpot. As of Q122, AMD has 27.7% of the overall market, and 18.3% of the x86 desktop market.
Under CEO Pat Gelsinger, Intel is determined to turn the tide back in its favor, with Gelsinger even going so far as to say “AMD [is] in the rearview mirror.”
Unfortunately for Gelsinger, the facts don’t support that claim just yet.