Desktop CPU shipments crater 20% amid high component costs, but AMD gains record share despite 'ugly' desktop processor market — Intel floods laptop market with millions of CPUs, but AMD still sets all-time share records

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The second quarter of 2026 was quite favorable for CPU suppliers, as unit growth was 10% sequentially, with data center and laptop processor shipments more than offsetting declining sales of desktop CPUs and lower-end products for embedded and IoT applications, according to a new report by Mercury Research. AMD continued to gain market share, so its unit shipments and share reached a new record during the quarter; Intel managed to increase shipments of its client and data center CPUs; whereas Apple sold a boatload of processors in its popular MacBook Neo laptops. Overall, the report describes the desktop X86 CPU market as "ugly."

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AMD Q2 2026