AMD is on track to outsell Intel, and it doesn’t own a single chip factory - MakeUseOf

Though AMD and Intel have competed for over 50 years, it's only recently that Team Red started closing the gap. Intel has always been the bigger company because of its vertical integration, meaning it designs and manufactures chips all under a single roof. In contrast, AMD relies on TSMC for chip production, which, on paper, makes Intel's all-in-one approach seem like the safer bet.

Unfortunately, the same strategy is now weighing on Intel. In the Q3 2026 earnings call, AMD said it's expecting revenue of $17 billion for the fourth quarter of 2026, nearly $1.5 billion more than Intel's midpoint. For the third quarter, AMD recorded revenue of $13.4 billion, a whopping 45% YoY increase.

Data center demand put AMD ahead

AMD's revenue bump has occurred only in the past year or so, thanks to increased focus on data centers. In fact, 64% of AMD's total revenue comes from data centers, not desktop Ryzen chips. Intel still leads the consumer market, generating nearly two-thirds of the x86 CPUs. So for total volume, Intel still leads in chip production, but AMD is on track to lead in revenue.

AMD is now a data center company first

While AMD is leading in the data center market, it is struggling in the consumer space. In Q3 of 2026, gaming revenue fell by 40% (console chips and Radeon) to $773 million, whereas the enterprise business is witnessing exponential growth.

It makes sense since hardware prices have risen well beyond what most people can afford, and it's not just DRAM and NAND anymore. For PC sales, AMD expects a downward trend in 2027 by a double-digit percentage. Given these projections, AMD CEO Lisa Su told Yahoo Finance that the company is shifting its priorities to enterprise.

Skipping the fab kept AMD flexible

AMD operates on a fabless business model, designing chips in-house and outsourcing manufacturing to TSMC. Though it increases manufacturing costs and dependence on a third party, the same model limits expenditure spent on R&D, allows for more flexibility, and less risk overall.

TSMC's economies of scale help keep the manufacturing process on schedule, and AMD can leverage its advancements in its own designs as demand for server processors rises. The same model has proven to be advantageous for them.

Intel's fabs became its heaviest weight

On paper, vertical integration works well because Intel has more control over the manufacturing process, supply chain security, and better optimization. However, since the chip-making process is complex, Intel has to pour a lot of money into R&D, especially when changing process nodes.

This is why, historically, Intel has struggled with changing processor nodes, first with 14nm, 10nm, and then completely ditching the newer 20A nodes, which caused them to suffer heavy losses since the fab business drags on the company as a whole. Recently, Intel has also started to outsource compute, I/O tiles, and graphics for Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake chips to TSMC, specifically the ones for laptops.

Intel isn't losing customers to AMD

Though limited supply is a problem that every manufacturer is facing these days, Intel has had other setbacks as well. Earlier this year, one of Intel's plants was shut down for nearly two weeks, costing them $300 million in losses, as the company itself puts it.

Then, AMD's server chips deliver higher core counts, more performance, and efficiency than Intel's, and the same blame can be placed on the vertical integration model, because AMD can work on designs without worrying about production. That said, Intel isn't completely falling behind in the server market, as its data center and AI revenue also climbed to $7.3 billion (up 78% YoY) in Q3 2026.

If the server CPUs aren't enough, AMD has just started shipping newer Instinct GPUs and Helios racks, and the AI business will also pick up more starting next quarter and beyond, meaning more revenue for AMD. However, this will further shrink AMD's share in the consumer market, which is a big reason why CEO Lisa Su stated that the company is focusing more on enterprise.