Intel and AMD Processors Suddenly Scarce, PC Industry Enters New Crisis Phase

After being haunted for a long time by shortages of memory chips and graphics cards (GPUs), the global technology industry is now confronted with a new nightmare. The latest report from Digitimes reveals that the shortage of processors (CPUs) is now a crisis far more severe and acute than the supply deficits of DRAM or storage chips. This supply crisis has reportedly disrupted the global PC production supply chain, including the industrial computing segment. Stocks of processors from the two main giants, Intel and AMD, are reported to have been wiped out from circulation, even when buyers are willing to redeem them at premium prices far above normal. What is the root cause behind this shortage? The answer is once again artificial intelligence (AI). Over the past few years, the explosion of the AI trend has indeed drained more stocks of GPUs. However, current latest AI model architectures increasingly demand high-level computational workloads and system automation (agentic AI). These new workloads heavily rely on CPU performance to manage data flows and schedule systems. This situation has forced semiconductor manufacturers to make pragmatic business decisions. Intel and AMD are now far more prioritising their production lines to produce data centre processors, such as the Intel Xeon Clearwater Forest series and AMD EPYC Venice. As a result of that choice, the allocation of mid-range (mainstream) processors, which are usually sought after by gamers and content creators, officially becomes the “sacrifice” and is sacrificed from the production queue. Desktop CPU prices in the market are predicted to continue skyrocketing in the range of 15 to 30 percent due to the minimal supply. The waiting time for chip availability, which initially only needed two weeks, is now reported to have ballooned to months. Not only in loose components, ready-to-use laptop lines are also certain to be hit hard. Data from the industry supply chain mentions that hardware vendors, such as ASUS and Acer, are even estimated to raise laptop selling prices by up to 30 percent on certain models in the near future. To escape this nightmare, the market now heavily depends on Intel’s promise to soon perfect the production readiness level at their cutting-edge Intel 18A fabrication node. Future chip generations like Panther Lake are hoped to become a long-term panacea. However, until that long-term solution is fully operational, consumers must prepare to face the bitter reality. This year 2026 seems likely to be the worst moment for anyone planning to assemble a new PC or buy a laptop for daily use.