Intel (INTC +2.59%) stock saw a day of big sell-offs in Wednesday's daily session. The chip company's share price closed out the day down 6.3% due to concerns that competitive pressures are mounting.
Intel's valuation sank today following news about a product that Nvidia is readying that could compete with Intel in the central processing unit (CPU) space. Meanwhile, another report suggested that Advanced Micro Devices will continue gaining market share from Intel in the server CPU market.
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Is Intel's outlook in the CPU market about to get much worse?
According to recent leaks, Nvidia is gearing up to launch two accelerated processing unites (APUs) for the consumer market that would combine a CPU and a graphics processing unit (GPU) into single products. Based on some limited perimeters, some leaked benchmark scores for the more advanced of Nvidia's rumored APUs point to performance that tops a comparable offering from Intel. Real-world performance may be more favorable in Intel in many situations, but moves from Nvidia to play a bigger role in the CPU space could still create significant competitive pressures.
Making matters worse, a new report from Mercury Research suggests that AMD has continued to rapidly increase its market share in the server CPU space. According to Mercury's report, AMD managed to capture 40% of the CPU market for servers in this year's first quarter -- and it's poised to match Intel in market share sometime next year.
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What's next for Intel?
Intel's path forward looks complicated. The company has missed out on the early growth market for artificial intelligence (AI) GPUs, and it's facing pressure in both the consumer and enterprise CPU markets. While the company's chip foundry unit has the potential to be an important national resource for the U.S., it remains to be seen whether its next-gen semiconductor fabrication platform will actually attract substantial interest from third parties seeking manufacturing services for their AI chip designs.
Intel stock could surge if there are signs that its turnaround strategy is yielding results, but there's a lot of uncertainty on the table right now.
