Non-x86 Servers Now Nearly Half the Market

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Demand for AI systems plus the shortage of DRAM and NAND are shaping the global market:

Servers employing x86 chips from AMD and Intel now account for little more than half of server revenue, according to the latest figures from IDC.

In its Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker for Q1 2026, the analyst firm says that non-x86 server revenue hit $58.7 billion, representing a startling increase of 107 percent over the same period last year.

The results mean that those non-x86 servers make up 47.9 percent of the market revenue, closing in rapidly on the amount of cash spent on x86 boxes.

The growth in non-x86 turnover is likely thanks to systems powered by Nvidia's AI chips featuring Arm cores. Although there is high demand for these, they also cost a pretty packet compared to an average datacenter box.

In fact, IDC noted a stark divide shaping the worldwide server market, which reached $122.6 billion in vendor revenue during this period, a 30.4 percent increase year-on-year.

On the one hand, AI infrastructure investment from hyperscalers and large cloud providers is "running at a scale that shows no sign of plateauing," while everything else - the non-accelerated segment - faces a supply-constrained environment, thanks largely to that AI infrastructure spending.

As Reg readers will know, memory chipmakers are prioritizing manufacturing capacity for higher margin products for AI servers and GPUs, starving the rest of the market of supply.

Component availability, particularly DRAM and NAND flash, is limiting near-term shipment volumes from vendors, IDC says, though order pipelines are strong. Supply of the right chips is therefore the chief limiting factor on server market growth.

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