Intel founder Andy Grove once said, “only the paranoid survive.” After two-decades of playing catch-up, experiencing setbacks, and not quite perfecting the manufacturing process – what’s left of the decaying PC x86 business is declining and Intel is not the leader in innovation, growing this segment, or even maintaining its market position in this segment anymore.

In a once dominant market, Intel continues to shrink its market share as it attempts to focus on creating its fabrication process for other customers including Broadcom, Qualcomm, and yes – it’s greatest rival, AMD.

According to Mercury Research & Tom’s Hardware:

AMD achieved two important milestones: it now commands shipments of over 25% of all x86 CPUs, and it now ships over 33% (one-third) of desktop x86 CPUs.

As early as a year prior, Intel controlled more than 90 percent of the x86 market, and the share only went higher as we move back time.

AMD’s unit share of all x86 client and server CPUs shipped exceeded 25% and now stands at 25.6%, up from 24.2% in the prior quarter and up from 24% in the same quarter a year ago. Intel still commands 74.4%, but it lost some share in certain segments, allowing AMD to hit an important milestone amid a market shrink.

This means nothing in a decaying market, but it is worth noting that AMD is better positioned to take on leaders such as Nvidia, and not those in a concentrated market such as Intel. Where Intel has failed to diversify, AMD has created a formattable position to today’s leading chip companies.

Intel has gone through many CEO changes over the years including a 10 percent stake from the U.S. government, converting the CHIPS Act grant funds into equity. Mass layoffs have plagued the firm as it attempts to shed its legacy businesses in favor of becoming more of a semiconductor manufacturing company with customers outside of itself.

AMD hit another all-time high, as the mix shifted heavily toward its latest and more expensive EPYC 9005-series platform. The combination of flat unit shipments and rising prices meant that AMD’s server revenue continues to grow significantly faster than its unit share, while Intel’s revenue gains were more limited due to modest declines in its overall shipment mix.

For many years, Intel has struggled on its former dominant server-side products, completely missed mobile, and sold off its networking and other niche businesses to competition. At this point, Intel is letting inertia take it the rest of the way as it buys time to reinvent itself.

Apple and Netflix have had success in cannibalizing their own successful markets to maintain relevance and grow in the face of new customer demands. While business conditions are bleak at Intel, it’s never wise to rule them out – even if they decide a “sum of the parts” strategy is the way to go through divesture. There are still a lot of great assets at the company.