Intel CEO says firm does not need 90 percent marketshare in CPU market

Speaking at the Credit Suisse technology conference, Intel CEO Bob Swan had some things to say about the current state of the x86 CPU market, the 10nm issues, and the future 7nm roadmap. In particular, one of the interesting remarks he made is that Intel no longer sees the "need" to own 90 percent of the x86 CPU market.

Swan said this sort of thinking could be responsible for the company missing opportunities. Instead, he envisions Intel as having a 30 percent marketshare in "all silicon".

Just a few years ago, Intel owned more than 90% of the market share in the x86 CPU market. Many financial models used Intel's revenue as a proxy for the Total Available Market of the CPU sector. With a full-year revenue of $59.4 billion in 2017, you can estimate the total TAM of the CPU side of things at roughly $66 billion (2017 est). Bob Swan believes that this mindset of protecting a majority share in the CPU side has led to Intel becoming complacent and missing out on major opportunities. Bob even went as far as to say that he is trying to "destroy" this thinking of having a 90% market share in the CPU side and instead wants people to come into office thinking Intel has 30% market share in "all Silicon".

Further reading at WCCF Tech. AMD is slowly grabbing marketshare from Intel thanks to its superior offerings, but the former is limited by the number of processors it can bring to the marketplace.