- CPUs could face major price hikes
- Rumor has it that Intel and AMD are raising CPU prices due to a supply shortage, which could become as bad as the RAM situation.
- Storage prices are also rising sharply and device makers are having to rethink their plans – with one handheld even being canned this week due to pricing difficulties.
If you haven’t heard enough about the supply issues and price hikes of various PC components, here’s some more bad news: CPUs are apparently now in the crosshairs.
PC Gamer pointed to a report from Nikkei Asia, which observed that the processor market is experiencing “an average price increase of between 10% and 15%”, which has affected both server and PC processors. This information was provided by multiple sources, we are told, all singing the same unwelcome tone.
Nikkei Asia also claims that, according to these sources: “Intel and AMD recently announced to their customers that they will increase the prices of all processor series starting in March and April respectively.”
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Shipping times for ordered processors are also increasing, and to a large extent. Waiting times have gone from a few weeks to a few months or even more.
One source is an executive at a gaming PC maker who says CPU supply is expected to decrease in the field in the second quarter of 2026. This executive said, “Intel and AMD have prioritized server CPU capacity, and PC supply has become less… What PC gamers can get in the second quarter is much less than the volume we got in the first quarter.”
They added: “What worries us is that even if we pay more, we still won’t be able to get more. The shortage of processors is becoming more serious day by day, no less than the situation of memory chips.”
Analysis: AI once again crushes consumers’ hopes
If you wanted a worrying statement about the CPU situation, I don’t think you could get a more worrying statement than the last sentence above. If we start thinking about comparing CPU power levels to what happened with memory chips, then that’s the start of a very dark path that CPUs could be about to follow. Indeed, this already appears to be the case, and the article cites several sources to this effect.
As you might guess, this is all due to the AI boom. This leads to a huge need for computing power, and this not only concerns server memory and storage, but also processors. This means that the pursuit of profit leads processor manufacturers to prioritize data center sales over consumers, just like with memory, because these are business decisions after all and you go where you can make the most money.
Unfortunately, the storage crisis is also getting worse. This week we learned that the price of a 1TB external SSD from SanDisk has tripled in the Apple Store (via Gizmodo). And a high-end handheld was effectively canceled, with Ayaneo halting pre-orders for its Next 2 handheld gaming device, as Kotaku reports. Thanks to the rising costs of storage and RAM, the Next 2 would have ended up costing around $4,000, which is clearly not sustainable. (Perhaps the high-end Strix Halo Ryzen processor was also a factor here).
Meanwhile, Asus just gave us a 25-30% price hike forecast for its PCs in Taiwan over the next quarter, and this reality will surely be reflected to a large extent globally.
It’s a grim picture that seems to be getting worse. And it’s also very strange that Intel just unveiled some very user-friendly consumer processors with its Arrow Lake refresh. It remains to be seen how these low prices will work in this climate, although, of course, so do the stock levels of said processors – they might only be produced in small quantities.
The advice for those considering purchasing a new processor for their PC would be to do so now or in the near future, just as it is for those considering purchasing a laptop.
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