14% of Q2 PC units were AI-capable

8.8 million AI-capable PCs representing 14% of the PC market were shipped in Q2, says Canalys.

Canalys’ definition of an AI-capable PC is that it must be a desktop or notebook possessing a dedicated chipset or block to run on-device AI workloads such as an NPU. Examples of these dedicated chipsets include AMD’s XDNA, Apple’s Neural Engine, Intel’s AI Boost and Qualcomm’s Hexagon.

“June saw the launch of Copilot+ PCs incorporating Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series of chips, based on Arm architecture,” said Canalys’ Ishan Dutt, “in the x86 space, Intel ramped up its delivery of Core Ultra chipsets, reporting strong sequential performance for its AI PC products, while AMD announced its Ryzen AI 300 series of notebook processors in June, with product releases starting in mid-July. With a strong foundation now set, the industry remains on track to ship around 44 million units in 2024 and 103 million units in 2025, according to Canalys forecasts.”

With its entire Mac portfolio incorporating M-series chips with the Neural Engine, Apple boasts the highest AI-capable PC shipments and share of the portfolio currently. The announcement of Apple Intelligence, which is now in the developer beta stage in the US, brought greater clarity to AI use cases for Mac.

In the Windows space, AI-capable PC shipments grew 127% sequentially. Lenovo, the highest shipping PC vendor globally, made its foray into Snapdragon X powered PCs with the Yoga Slim 7x and ThinkPad T14s, helping to boost the AI-capable share of its total Windows PC shipments to around 6% in the quarter. This represents a sequential growth of 228% for its AI-capable PC shipments.

HP achieved around 8% AI-capable PC share within its Windows shipments, with the launch of the Omnibook X 14 and EliteBook Ultra G1 Snapdragon Copilot+ PCs on top of its broadening offerings of Core Ultra devices across various product lines.

Dell had just below 7% of its Windows shipments represented by AI-capable PCs, backed by its strong commercial presence. It launched Copilot+ PCs across its XPS, Latitude and Inspiron lines but with staggered availability.

“Windows PC shipments in the above $800 range grew 9% sequentially in Q2 2024, with AI-capable PC shipments in those price bands up 126%,” says Dutt.