Intel's data center CPU sales reached a 13-year low in 2024 due to increased competition from AMD, the transition to higher-core count models, and a market shift to AI servers.

Unit sales of Intel's data center CPUs dropped by 20% from 2011 levels and over 80% from 2021. Intel's data center average selling prices increased, but it is unclear if the company can regain market share in the AI accelerator market.

In the mid-2010s, Intel's data center CPU sales began to rise sharply due to the rise of cloud data centers. However, in 2022, demand for general-purpose servers slowed down while AMD unveiled its 4th Generation EPYC processors with up to 96 cores, far exceeding the number of cores in Intel's top-of-the-range Xeon CPUs. As a result, Intel's server CPU shipments dropped in 2022 and then collapsed in 2023.

In 2024, Intel finally released its Xeon 6 processors with up to 128 high-performance cores or 144 energy-efficient cores, but unit sales of Intel server CPUs declined slightly once again as customers switched to high-core-count models.