Friday, June 27th 2025
Intel's Server Share Slips to 67% as AMD and Arm Widen the Gap
In just a few years, AMD has gone from the underdog to Intel's most serious challenger in the server world. Thanks to its EPYC processors, AMD now captures about a third of every dollar spent on server CPUs, up from essentially zero in 2017. Over that same period, Intel's share has slipped from nearly 100% to roughly 63%, signaling a significant shift in what companies choose to power their data centers. The real inflection point came with AMD's Zen architecture: by mid-2020, EPYC had already claimed more than 10% of server-CPU revenues. Meanwhile, Intel's rollout of Sapphire Rapids Xeons encountered delays and manufacturing issues, leaving customers to look elsewhere. By late 2022, AMD was over the 20% mark, and Intel found itself under 75% for the first time in years.
Looking ahead, analysts at IDC and Mercury Research, with data compiled by Bank of America, expect AMD's slice of the revenue pie to grow to about 36% by 2025, while Intel drops to around 55%. Arm-based server chips are also starting to make real inroads, forecast to account for roughly 9% of CPU revenue next year as major cloud providers seek more energy- and cost-efficient options. By 2027, AMD could approach a 40% revenue share, Intel may fall below half the market, and Arm designs could capture 10-12%. Remember that these figures track revenue rather than unit sales: AMD's gains come primarily from high-end, high-core-count processors, whereas Intel still shifts plenty of lower-priced models. With AMD poised to launch its Genoa and Bergamo EPYCs and Intel banking on the upcoming E-core Xeon 6 series to regain its footing, the fight for server-CPU supremacy is far from over. Still, Intel's once-unbeatable lead is clearly under threat.
Sources:
Jukan Choi on X, via HardwareLuxx
Looking ahead, analysts at IDC and Mercury Research, with data compiled by Bank of America, expect AMD's slice of the revenue pie to grow to about 36% by 2025, while Intel drops to around 55%. Arm-based server chips are also starting to make real inroads, forecast to account for roughly 9% of CPU revenue next year as major cloud providers seek more energy- and cost-efficient options. By 2027, AMD could approach a 40% revenue share, Intel may fall below half the market, and Arm designs could capture 10-12%. Remember that these figures track revenue rather than unit sales: AMD's gains come primarily from high-end, high-core-count processors, whereas Intel still shifts plenty of lower-priced models. With AMD poised to launch its Genoa and Bergamo EPYCs and Intel banking on the upcoming E-core Xeon 6 series to regain its footing, the fight for server-CPU supremacy is far from over. Still, Intel's once-unbeatable lead is clearly under threat.
36 Comments on Intel's Server Share Slips to 67% as AMD and Arm Widen the Gap
Intel doesn't have the money to pull what they did during the Netburst days and they now face competition from CPU/GPU vendors other than AMD. x86 is still important, but it's not as big a deal as it used to be.Nah, Netburst was infamously bad. Even the people at Intel didn't like it. They knew it was a hot, underperforming mess of a dead end.
www.anandtech.com/show/1517
Edit: added quote from p.138 of this interview with Robert Colwell, the guy who started Pentium 4 development
www.sigmicro.org/media/oralhistories/colwell.pdf
Any leaks pointing at how competitive Clearwater Forrest and Dianond Rapids are going to be against Zen6 Venice EPYCs?
If Intel doesn't stop this bleeding of market share in data center, they will soon come in far more challenging position than ever before.
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Missing out on new key markets caused them to have to do massive layoffs, such as this one from 2016
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2016/04/intel_quarterly_results.html
The 10nm development woes they had then wasn't cheap to deal with either