Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) gave up on manufacturing its own chips back in 2009. It was the right call -- AMD couldn't afford the mammoth outlays required to keep its fabs competitive with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC). While this move allowed AMD to focus on chip design while tapping manufacturing services from third-party foundries, Intel's manufacturing tech was the best in the industry until recently.

Starting about five years ago, long delays and missteps by Intel related to its troubled 10-nanometer (nm) process node allowed AMD to flip the script. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which AMD uses for manufacturing, now offers more advanced process nodes than Intel has been able to muster. AMD's PC and server central processing units (CPUs) have had the advantage of superior manufacturing for the past few generations, helping the company win considerable market share.

Intel is still the market leader, but AMD now claims about 20% of the PC CPU market and nearly 24% of the server CPU market. Progress in the server CPU market has been particularly impressive -- AMD's market share stood at just 0.8% at the end of 2017.

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Source Fool.com