Intel desktop CPU market share rises to 70.1% in Q3 2026

Intel gained 5.1 percentage points of desktop CPU shipment market share in Q3 2026, reaching 70.1% according to Mercury Research. AMD's share fell from 34.9% in Q2 2026 to 29.9% in Q3 2026. This is AMD's lowest desktop shipment share since early 2025, when it was approximately 28%. One year ago, AMD held 33.6% of the market.

Image: Digital Citizen

Mercury Research says the exact reason for this shift is uncertain. The data tracks shipment share rather than processor performance, revenue, or retail popularity. Mercury Research suggests Intel may have moved more chips to the desktop market following a decline in mobile CPU demand. Both Intel and AMD saw mobile CPU shipments drop by more than 10% in Q3 2026.

Mercury Research also noted that AMD has more exposure to the gaming market, which has faced high costs for GPUs, memory, and storage. AMD has said demand for some products exceeds available supply and is prioritizing its data center business. In the server market, AMD's share rose to 35.5% in Q3 2026 from 34.5% in the previous quarter.