AMD: Arm Architecture Holds No Advantage Over x86

According to recent industry developments, Arm has been steadily gaining ground in both the server and PC markets, driven by a wave of companies adopting its architecture. Cloud giants like Amazon Web Services with its Graviton CPUs, Apple's M-series processors in Mac devices, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite for PCs have all played a key role in this shift.

Arm CEO Rene Haas revealed that much of this momentum comes from the surge in artificial intelligence workloads. Since 2021, the number of startups adopting Arm chips has grown twelvefold, while the server customer base has expanded to over 70,000—14 times higher than just a few years ago. Bernstein Research estimates that by 2023, nearly 10% of global servers were powered by Arm CPUs, with AWS alone deploying more than two million Graviton chips.

On the PC side, Arm continues to grow thanks to Apple's full transition to the M-series, Qualcomm's entry into high-performance Windows PCs, and Nvidia's partnership with MediaTek on Arm-based personal supercomputers like the DGX Spark. Arm expects that nearly half of the compute shipped to hyperscalers this year will be Arm-based, and forecasts that its processors will represent around 40% of the combined PC and tablet market.

The success largely stems from Arm's strength in AI computing and power efficiency, as well as lower overall costs compared to traditional x86 solutions. However, competition is heating up. AMD and Intel are aggressively pushing back, arguing that x86 platforms now match or even exceed Arm in efficiency and AI performance.

Intel's upcoming Lunar Lake chips boast up to 120 TOPS of NPU performance with enhanced battery life, with Acer and ASUS both claiming laptops capable of nearly 29 hours of video playback. AMD's Strix Point and Strix Halo APUs are gaining traction in notebooks, mini PCs, and handhelds, with the Ryzen 9 AI MAX+ 395 reaching 126 TOPS—surpassing Arm solutions.

AMD's Jack Huynh stressed that the AI PC era must be built on strong PC hardware and software foundations, highlighting the company's ambitious roadmap and deep ecosystem partnerships. With both AMD and Intel accelerating innovation, Arm's once-clear efficiency advantage is now being challenged head-on.