Intel can’t keep up: CPU demand 50% higher than capacity
Intel boss Lip-Bu Tan has indicated that further price increases for processors and other products are to be expected because the company simply does not have the capacity necessary to meet the demand for CPUs.
Intel boss sees CPU demand continuing to rise
After an explosion in prices for memory products and graphics cards, the AI boom has now also resulted in significant price increases for so-called “general purpose” processors, which of course means CPUs. For Intel and its customers, this means a drastic increase in demand because more and more AI tasks are also being taken over by CPUs. In the course of one Interviews at the Splunk Conference 2026 In Denver, Colorado, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan made it clear that his company is no longer able to meet the sharp increase in demand for its processors. Currently, only around 50 percent of customer demand can actually be met, says Tan.
Yield on Intel 18A increases by seven percent annually
The company is currently well positioned with production in the Intel 18A node and is recording an annual improvement in production yield of around seven percent. In addition, mass production of chips will begin in the new 14A node from the beginning of 2027. But even then it will be difficult to meet the demand, especially in the area of AI inferencing. The background is the trend towards “agentic AI”, in which AI services carry out certain tasks independently at the request of the user.
Tan expects the number of AI “agents” to grow to many trillions in the next decade, further increasing CPU demand. He therefore sees Intel itself in an excellent position. For customers, however, due to the possible permanent shortage of CPUs, this also means that they will have to expect prices to continue to rise sharply. The PC manufacturers are of course likely to pass on the price increases expected from Intel to consumers, while the PC market is moving into the background anyway. Intel has already raised the prices of its client CPUs three times since 2025 by five to ten percent.
Amit Gohar is Technical writer at ResearchSnipers.com, he is well versed Technology News writer, he has completed is MS computer Science in 2020. He can be reached at amit.g@researchsnipers.com
