In terms of market valuation, AMD has surpassed competitor chipmaker Intel. The change is primarily symbolic, but it represents a far more competitive market for PC and server processors, in which the two businesses compete directly.

AMD shares gained more than 3% on the day, bringing the chipmaker’s market capitalisation to $153 billion. Intel plunged over 9% the day after reporting catastrophic earnings that missed profit projections and showed shrinking revenue. At the close of trade on Friday, Intel’s market capitalization was $148 billion.

The change is primarily symbolic, but it heralds a far more competitive market for PC and server processors, in which the two businesses will fight directly.

The achievement also implies that investors may prefer an asset-light chipmaker versus one that is highly invested in research and development.

AMD outsources production to third-party “fabs,” or chip factories, but Intel has stated that it will continue to develop and operate plants.

In recent years, AMD CPUs have become far more competitive with Intel’s products in terms of performance, even outperforming them in several applications.

Intel said on Thursday that its disappointing earnings announcement was due to execution challenges and that it has reduced its full-year earnings per share outlook from $2.30 to $3.60. Intel also blamed its failure on a declining PC market and macroeconomic factors.

In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger compared the company’s turnaround approach to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

AMD will announce its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Tuesday next week, and investors are waiting to see if it faces the same macroeconomic challenges as the rest of the industry.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)