According to number crunchers at Jon Peddie Research, in April, the Trump administration announced a baseline 10 per cent tariff on nearly all imports, sending hardware makers into a frenzy. For about three months they crammed every shipment they could into US ports before the duty hammer fell.

While semiconductors, PCs, smartphones and chips were ultimately exempt, the panic still juiced the PC market.

JPR president Jon Peddie said: “We think the PC CPUs’ growth was accelerated by the coming tariffs, and to a much lesser extent, by AI PCs."

The server side saw movement, with CPU shipments up 0.6 per cent from Q1 and 22 per cent year-on-year.

Troubled Chipzilla still rules with 73 per cent of the market, but AMD has pushed its share from 25 per cent to 27 per cent over the past year, an eight-point gain. AMD insists it is now ahead in every segment, with superior performance translating into more Client and Server wins.

The real test will come in the next two quarters. Trump’s fresh 100 per cent tariffs on chips could rattle both vendors. Intel will get a pass on anything fabbed in its US plants, which could give it an edge. AMD, however, still relies on TSMC in Taiwan.

While TSMC itself is exempt, there is no guarantee that will shield AMD’s CPUs from the new tariff regime. Without US-based fabs, AMD risks hefty price hikes that could blunt its market momentum and test consumer loyalty.