Report claims the global CPU shortage is 'more acute for processors than memory' as industry waits for Intel's 18A chips to plug the gap

A Digitimes report on the ongoing CPU shortage says that industry sources have described the situation as 'more acute for processors than memory'.

While memory is still available in limited quantities (and with massive price increases, thanks to the ongoing RAMpocalypse), several models of chips made by both AMD and Intel are said to be effectively unavailable, regardless of price.

This shortage is hitting PC makers building enterprise-level machines the hardest, with many of those suppliers relying on the availability of Intel chips. And with some Intel CPUs already said to be in short supply since 2025, the industry looks to be waiting for Intel's 18A chips to plug the gap.

Intel's 18A process has had a difficult history. While its Panther Lake mobile CPUs, which use the node for the compute tile, are already available in some of the newest laptops (and hopefully, eventually, handhelds), yield progress was initially rather slow—although it appears to be steadily improving.

So much so, in fact, that CEO Lip-Bu Tan is now supporting its use for external customers, suggesting that those yield improvements are bearing fruit and that more capacity may be on the way.

In the meantime, some analysts have warned that consumer demand may drop in 2026 thanks to higher prices for PCs and components, even during sales periods. And while a check of the consumer component listings suggests many gaming CPUs are still available for reasonable sums, some have claimed they expect the CPU shortage to hit the market hardest in the April-June quarter.

What's bad for enterprise system builders is often bad for the gaming PC market, too, although it remains to be seen whether we'll be writing about the "CPUpocalypse" alongside the memory crisis for the latter half of the year. It's not got the same ring to it, I'll admit.

AI server demand really is throwing a spanner in the works for all sorts of components these days, and most indications suggest it may well get worse before it gets better. I like to end an article on a positive note, but... uh, it's not looking too cheery right now, is it?

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