What you need to know
- AMD had a 25.6% CPU market share as of Q4 2021, according to Mercury Research.
- It is the highest CPU market share that AMD has ever had, passing the previous record of 25.3% set in 2006.
- AMD lost market share in the desktop and mobile segments but gained overall share for x86 processors.
AMD's CPU market share reached its highest level ever in Q4 2021. Despite losing share in the desktop and mobile segments, AMD hit an overall x86 market share of 25.6% in the final quarter of last year. That figure surpassed the previous record of 25.3%, which was set by AMD in 2006. The latest market share stats come from Mercury Research (via Tom's Hardware).
The ongoing global chip shortage affects the entire processor market, which may have contributed to AMD's and Intel's respective successes and where the companies fell short. For example, AMD chips are inside the Xbox Series X and other gaming consoles, so resources may have been allocated to meet the demand for those systems over other types of devices. AMD's CEO Lisa Su also discussed how the company had to sacrifice budget-friendly CPUs to produce more high-end chips.
The server segment of AMD grew in market share, reaching 10.7% in Q4 2021. That was the 11th straight quarter of growth for the market share of AMD's server CPUs.
AMD's desktop unit market share fell to 16.2% in the last quarter of 2021 (down from 17% in Q3 2021). The company's notebook unit market share also fell, settling at 21.6% (down from 22% in Q3 2021). Intel launching its new Alder Lake CPUs, including the Intel Core i9-12900K, may have affected AMD's market share.
AMD's recent market share growth lined up with a revenue record for the company in Q4 2021. Its revenue of $4.8 billion in the final quarter of 2021 marked a 49% increase year-over-year. AMD set a record for revenue across the entire year of 2021 as well.
