PC Processor Crisis Set to Worsen, Not Just Becoming More Expensive

After being plagued 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) has now become a far more severe and acute crisis compared to the supply deficits of DRAM or storage chips. This supply crisis is reported to have disrupted the global PC production supply chain, including the industrial computing segment. Stocks of processors from the two main giants, Intel and AMD, are said to be completely depleted from circulation, even when buyers are willing to pay a premium price 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, the latest AI model architectures are increasingly demanding 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 manufacture data centre processors, such as the Intel Xeon Clearwater Forest series and AMD EPYC Venice. As a result of this choice, the allocation of mid-range (mainstream) processors, which are usually sought after by gamers and content creators, has officially become the “sacrifice” and is being sidelined from the production queue. Desktop CPU prices in the market are predicted to continue soaring in the range of 15 to 30 per cent due to the limited supply. The waiting time for chip availability, which initially only required two weeks, is now reported to have ballooned to months. Not only in standalone components, ready-to-use laptop lines are also certain to be severely affected. Data from the industrial supply chain indicates that hardware vendors, such as ASUS and Acer, are even estimated to raise laptop selling prices by up to 30 per cent on certain models in the near future. To escape this nightmare, the market is now heavily dependent 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 expected to be 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.