AI Memory Boom Squeezes PC Market

Global processor shipments experienced a contraction in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the previous year. Mercury Research indicated that this decline was primarily driven by reduced system-on-chip and embedded volumes linked to AMD's diminishing games console business, alongside a sharp decrease in desktop CPU shipments. Concurrently, AMD consistently gained market share from Intel across most tracked product categories.

Desktop CPU shipments plunged by more than 20% year-on-year. This downturn is attributed to weaker demand for high-end gaming PCs and escalating prices for memory and GPUs. Chipmakers are prioritizing more profitable high-bandwidth memory for AI servers, driving up the cost of finished PCs and contributing to GPU shortages. AMD's smaller decline in desktop shipments allowed it to increase its market share to nearly 35%.

Conversely, mobile processor shipments saw robust growth. Intel expanded its production capacity, mitigating previous supply constraints and narrowing the gap between supply and demand. Despite this, AMD's share in the mobile segment rose to approximately 29%. Server processor shipments grew by 20% year-on-year, with strong demand in datacenters and networking. AMD's server processor share also climbed significantly, reaching 34.5%.

In the Arm-based CPU market for PCs and servers, record highs were observed. Arm-based systems captured 15.3% of the client market, and 13.6% of the server market. These figures suggest the processor market's current dynamics are heavily influenced by supply-chain pressures stemming from the AI boom, impacting traditional desktop buyers due to memory and GPU scarcity.