Intel Falls 3 Days as AMD, Arm Gain Server Share

According to a recent report by Barron's, Intel Corporation has emerged as one of the strongest-performing semiconductor stocks during the latest chip-sector rebound. However, analysts caution that the company continues to face mounting competitive pressure in the server processor market.

Intel shares fell 3.6% on Thursday, closing at US$115.93 and marking the company’s third consecutive trading-session decline. Despite the recent pullback, Intel stock has still gained more than threefold since the beginning of the year. Barron’s had previously highlighted Intel as a favorable stock pick when shares were trading near US$64 last month.

Much of the market’s optimism surrounding Intel has been tied to expectations for its central processing units (CPUs) in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and data center applications. While global server CPU shipments increased 19% year-over-year in the first quarter, Intel reportedly continued to lose market share to rivals Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Arm Holdings plc.

In a new research report, UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri stated that both Arm and AMD are continuing to grow shipments at a faster pace than Intel, further expanding their presence as Intel’s server CPU market share declines.

According to UBS estimates, Intel’s server CPU shipment share fell approximately 370 basis points to 54.9% during the first quarter. In comparison, AMD increased its share by 230 basis points to 27.4%, while Arm expanded by 140 basis points to 17.7%.

Despite the intensified competition, analysts believe the long-term growth outlook for the server CPU market remains substantial. UBS projects the global server CPU total addressable market could grow from roughly US$30 billion in 2025 to approximately US$170 billion by 2030, largely driven by rising AI-related workloads and expanding data center demand.

Among the major chip architectures, Arm is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this transition, as its power-efficient architecture continues gaining traction against the traditional x86 instruction set used by Intel and AMD processors.

Arcuri noted that Arm-based platforms could capture a disproportionately large share of future market growth, potentially accounting for around 40% to 45% of global server CPU shipments by 2030.

At the same time, UBS forecasts that Intel and AMD will likely divide most of the remaining server CPU market between them by the end of the decade.

Following the report, Arm shares rose 3.3% on Thursday, while AMD shares gained 0.9%, reflecting continued investor confidence in the expanding AI-driven semiconductor market.