The Inference Era Is Also a CPU Story
The Inference Era Is Also a CPU Story
At OCP Global Summit 2026, AMD CEO Lisa Su called this the year of inference, estimating inference accounts for about 60% of the market, and raised CPU TAM forecasts three times due to agent workloads, expecting the market to exceed $200 billion by 2030.
“This year is really the year of inference,” AMD CEO Lisa Su told the audience at OCP Global Summit 2026 in San Jose, estimating that inference now makes up about 60% of the market. With agentic workloads, she added, CPU demand has grown so quickly that AMD raised its CPU TAM forecast three times in the past nine months. It now expects the market to exceed $200 billion by 2030.
TrendForce sees similar momentum. With the x86 and Arm camps and other players stepping up CPU investment for agentic AI and other emerging applications, we estimate global server CPU shipments will grow 31% YoY in 2026, up from 9% in 2025, with growth accelerating further to 43% in 2027.
Related report: Server DRAM Industry Analysis－3Q26
Besides AMD, both Arm and NVIDIA used their OCP keynotes to lay out their CPU plans. Below are the highlights from each vendor, along with TrendForce’s take.
Source: TrendForce Insights Semiconductor Industry Insights · insights.trendforce.com