The server CPU market is set to grow significantly through 2030 on the back of the global AI data center build-out.
According to BofA Global Research analyst Vivek Arya, the server CPU total addressable market (TAM) will grow to more than $170 billion by 2030 from $35 billion in 2025, a 5x expansion, and well ahead of prior 2030 TAM estimates of $125 billion.
How large will the server CPU market become?
Which companies are competing in the server CPU space?
Why are AI agents driving CPU demand higher?
How have CPU company stock prices performed recently?
“We view the emergence of agentic AI as a powerful demand accelerant that expands the CPU opportunity and lifts both [Intel and AMD] and [Arm-based] challengers,” Arya wrote.
CPUs, or central processing units, have become an increasingly important part of the AI explosion. While graphics processing units (GPUs) continue to dominate data center spending, CPUs from Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD), and those built using Arm’s (ARM) chip architecture are set to grab a bigger slice of the AI pie.
The reason comes down to the growth of AI agents, otherwise referred to as agentic AI. AI agents are autonomous and semi-autonomous digital helpers that can perform tasks on a user’s behalf.
You can build your own agents using popular tools like OpenAI’s (OPAI.PVT) Codex, Anthropic’s (ANTH.PVT) Claude, and Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Gemini. Consumer devices, such as smartphones and laptops, are also beginning to provide agentic capabilities.
Intel Corporation (INTC)
Pre-Market: 8:37:41 AM EDT
While GPUs continue to power AI models, when AI agents take actions based on your prompts, such as scouring your email for a message about an upcoming conference and putting it on your calendar, they’re relying on CPUs to perform those tasks.
The continued increase in the use and number of AI agents will only drive CPU demand higher, Arya explained in his note.
That, coupled with recent news that Intel is working to build chips for Google and Nvidia, has sent shares of the chip builder soaring 436% over the last 12 months. AMD, meanwhile, has climbed 280% in the same period.
While Intel and AMD stand out among data center CPU vendors, Nvidia (NVDA) and Qualcomm (QCOM) stand to grab a piece of the market, as well.
Nvidia already offers its Grace CPU as part of its Grace Blackwell superchip, and it has begun offering its own CPU-based servers. Qualcomm, meanwhile, is expanding into the data center space with its own data center CPU, which it’s rumored to debut later this month.
https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/article/cpu-market-to-grow-5x-by-2030-bofa-says-180454617.html?shem=rimspwouoe,
