According to the latest data disclosed by PC Gamer from Mercury Research, in the third quarter of 2026, the shipment share of AMD for desktop devices dropped to 29.9%, a decrease of 5 percentage points from 34.9% in the second quarter; meanwhile, the share of Intel rebounded to 70.1%.

This is also the lowest desktop share for AMD since early 2025 (when it was around 28%). However, in the server market, the situation is quite the opposite; AMD's share has further increased from 34.5% in the previous quarter to 35.5%.

Mercury Research states that it is currently not possible to determine the exact cause of Intel's significant share fluctuations this time. The institution's most likely speculation is that due to the weak demand in the laptop market, Intel, which has been facing insufficient supply in the desktop market, was able to allocate more chip production capacity to the desktop market, which coincides with the seasonal demand growth that usually occurs in the third quarter; on the other hand, AMD seems not to have benefited from this wave of seasonal growth.

Mercury Research pointed out that AMD has a higher dependence on the PC gaming market, which has recently been affected by limited graphics card supply. In addition, AMD has also publicly acknowledged that current demand exceeds its production capacity. The CEO, Su Zifeng, recently made it clear that AMD is a company that prioritizes data centers.

Related Reading:

Su Zifeng: AMD is a company that prioritizes data centers.