According to iSuppli, 2006 was the year where leading chip supplier Intel suffered a revenue decline while rival AMD nearly doubled its sales. "For US microprocessor giant Intel, 2006 was the worst of times, as its global semiconductor revenue dropped by 11.1% from 2005. The revenue decline, which was due to Intel"s bleak performance in its core PC microprocessor and flash-memory businesses, erased nearly all of the company"s sales gains from its strong year in 2005. For Intel"s smaller US rival, AMD, 2006 was the best of times as it achieved a whopping 91.6% increase in revenue for the year, partly due to a major acquisition, but also because of strong gains in microprocessor market share," said Dale Ford, vice president of market intelligence for iSuppli.
This robust increase in revenue caused AMD"s ranking to rise to eighth place in 2006, up seven positions from the 15th rank in 2005. Intel"s combined microprocessor and flash revenue in 2006, which together accounted for 83% of total company revenue last year, fell to its lowest level since 2003, resulting in Intel"s market share falling to 12.1%, its lowest level since before 2000. Meanwhile, AMD in 2006 gained PC microprocessor market share at Intel"s expense. AMD"s PC microprocessor revenue rose by 35.5% in 2006 and its market share in that product segment increased to 16.1%, up from 11.1% in 2005. AMD"s revenue was also boosted substantially by its acquisition of graphics chip seller ATI Technologies in 2006.