Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger last week said he expects the company to continue to lose market share in data center equipment to rival chipmaker AMD.

“Our competition has done a good job,” Gelsinger said at the Evercore Technology Conference, a recording of which EE Times obtained. “We haven’t for a few years, and we’re still on a process-technology deficit.”

The “embattled” Intel CEO paid rival AMD a compliment, citing strong market share gains over the previous 13 quarters to 20% of the server market, Wedbush Securities senior VP Matt Bryson told EE Times.

“We continue to see AMD as a leader in the data center CPU space versus incumbent Intel, particularly with (AMD’s) Zen-4 Genoa and Bergamo set to launch over the next few quarters, a result that we expect will solidify AMD’s lead in servers vis a vis Intel,” he said.

Bryson said he is less certain about an Intel turnaround in 2025-2026: “It completely depends on their progress with internal manufacturing. If Intel can catch/surpass TSMC, then they aren’t having to stretch with IC designs and packaging to make up for the initial manufacturing disadvantage. Until we get closer to those manufacturing transitions, it’s hard to say with any certainty that Intel is going to execute.”

AMD outsources its production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which leads Intel’s process technology by several generations.

Intel’s Sapphire Rapids processor is better than the AMD alternative in terms of performance, but not dramatically so, according to Gelsinger. It’s not a “compelling, crushing” advantage, he said.

“We expect that our data center business grows every year, as we go forward. We’re still losing share through next year. We’re not keeping up with the overall total available market growth until later in ’25-’26, when we start regaining material share gains.”

Intel’s yet-to-be released Sierra Forest processors will help the company regain market share, Gelsinger said.

Gelsinger also said Intel’s Granite Rapids/Sierra Forest processors would be the driver of future market share gains, despite reiterating the delayed timing for the company’s Sapphire Rapids chip, which has been deferred to 2023.

Gelsinger became Intel’s CEO in February 2021. Since that time, he’s worked to re-establish Intel as the leader in process technology while making new investments in the U.S. and Europe to expand production capacity.

By: DocMemory
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