Intel and AMD "sacrifice PCs for servers": old chips return to new computers, AI PCs are neglected

Zhitong
2026.07.15 02:47

Investment bank Susquehanna's research report points out that Intel and AMD are prioritizing the supply of advanced process chips to the server market, resulting in a significant increase in the proportion of older processors in newly assembled PCs in 2026. Although the share of AI PCs remains stable, the proportion of previous generation platforms is increasing. Affected by weakened demand in the second half of the year, institutions expect a year-on-year decline of 10% in annual PC shipments

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, the latest research report from investment bank Susquehanna indicates that the share of older processors from Intel (INTC.US) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US) in newly assembled personal computers in 2026 is significantly increasing. This is mainly because the two major chip manufacturers prefer to supply the latest process chips to the more profitable server market rather than to AI PCs.

The report shows that in the second quarter of 2026, the share of models equipped with Intel AI PC processors remains stable overall. Among them, the Arrow Lake series maintains a share of about 10% (a total of 359 SKUs) in Intel platform laptops, while the Lunar Lake series sees a slight increase of 1 percentage point to about 9% (a total of 319 SKUs).

It is noteworthy that the share of several previous-generation platforms in Intel laptops has actually increased—such as Tiger Lake, which grew by 2 percentage points, and Ice Lake, which grew by 1 percentage point. Meanwhile, the share of laptops equipped with Intel 7 process processors decreased by 6 percentage points to about 48%.

The team led by Susquehanna analyst Christopher Roland stated in a report on Tuesday that this may indicate that Intel is prioritizing the allocation of capacity for more advanced processes to server CPUs—both Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids use the Intel 7 process.

A similar trend is also evident with AMD, as the share of its older CPUs in new PC assemblies is also rising.

Although the volume of new PC assemblies in 2026 is higher than expected, Susquehanna still predicts that the annual shipment volume of original design manufacturers (ODMs) will decline by 10% year-on-year, mainly due to a significant weakening of demand expectations in the second half of the year.

This judgment is consistent with predictions from several institutions. IDC expects global PC shipments to decline by 11.3% in 2026; Omdia predicts a decline of 12%; and Morgan Stanley expects a decline of over 5%. The chill in the PC market stands in stark contrast to the heat in the server market

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