It seems the worst of the AI-induced chip shortages is not behind us. We’ve been seeing a limited supply of RAM and storage devices around the world in 2026, as well as massively inflated prices on both. Now, it seems that CPUs are the next chip to fall, with reports from PC building brands detailing a smaller supply than usual. If the best CPUs for gaming start to see the same kinds of inflation as memory and storage, consumers could be in for a really tricky time.
New reports come from Nekkei Asia by way of our friends at Tom’s Hardware and PC Gamer, but no matter who you read it from, things don’t look good for consumers. Granted, a lot of the claims so far are seemingly hitting server builders first, but just as RAM for gamers uses the same building blocks as RAM for data centers, server CPUs and gaming PC processors share the same types of raw parts.
One server manufacturer that remains nameless in the reports told Nikkei Asia that “Previously, the average lead time for a CPU was around one to two weeks, but now the wait time has prolonged to an average of eight to 12 weeks.”
It might not be such a bad idea to upgrade your CPU now if you were planning on one soon. Here are two I’d recommend:
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: $419 at Amazon
Intel Core Ulta 7 265K: $282 at Amazon
The knock-on effect seems to be hitting prebuilt gaming PC makers too, with one brand telling Nikkei Asia that “The CPU shortage is getting more serious day by day, no less than the memory chip situation.”
The signposts do seem to have been pointing to a potential CPU shortage for a while. Back in February, Intel and AMD warned Chinese customers about delays for server CPU shipments: “Inventory [is] at [its] lowest level in Q1, but we are addressing aggressively and expect supply improvement in Q2 through 2026,” Intel told Reuters.
For reference, I’ve seen 32GB of DDR5 memory increase from circa $100 before RAM shortages happened to now costing upwards of $300 in places, and a vastly lessened supply of stock on the shelves. If shortages on CPUs hit in the same ways as memory and SSDs, we’ll likely see bigger price hikes on “flagship” and higher-end processors first, so if you’re planning an upgrade any time soon, I’d recommend buying sooner rather than later.
In brief, RAM and storage products have been impacted due to AI infrastructure. With so many data centers and new facilities being built all over the world by the biggest players in AI, all of the world’s manufacturing power is going into supply contracts with them, leaving hardly anything behind for consumers. If CPUs are also hit with this, it could mean the cost of all sorts of gaming hardware starts to skyrocket. We’ve already seen a shortage of memory impact Valve’s upcoming hardware plans. If processors are implicated too, the manufacturing of even more technology will see troublesome times.
This news may hit Intel the hardest as it’s just launched a new range of refreshed Intel Core Ultra processors. Not only that, but its processors utilize more cores and threads than AMD’s competition, meaning supply issues will hit its wares harder. That said, it may have been a wise decision from the brand (and potentially forward-thinking) to not launch a refreshed “Ultra 9” flagship. Intel outlined in a press briefing I attended recently that it wanted to focus on enthusiast products that had good performance per dollar, and that’s why the most powerful CPU it’s launching in this new range is the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus.
I now wonder if it’s partly because the engineers and decision makers at Team Blue could see a potential supply chain issue on the horizon.
If you want to learn more about gaming on PC, take a look at the best SSD for gaming, the best gaming PC in the UK, and the best computer speakers.