Well, it appears that Lenovo has given PC gamers the signal not to worry for this year, but 2026 could prove to be troublesome if memory shortages continue at their current pace.
Lenovo & Other Manufacturers Prepare For a Tough Year Moving Ahead, Following Worsening Memory Shortages
The PC market is entering a 'difficult' period in the upcoming quarters, as the AI bandwagon is moving at a rapid pace, driving demand for memory products to a new high. End-solutions like HBM, DDR, LPDDR, and GDDR memory are entering into shortages, which is why vendors across the consumer supply chain are preparing for aggressive price increases. In a statement by Lenovo's CFO Winston Cheng, it is revealed that the manufacturer had already adjusted to memory shortages by acquiring massive inventory of its products upfront, to ensure that higher costs don't transfer to retailers and consumers.
The world’s biggest PC maker is holding on to component inventories that are roughly 50% higher than usual, Chief Financial Officer Winston Cheng told Bloomberg TV on Monday. The frenzy to build and fill AI data centers with advanced hardware is raising prices for producers of consumer electronics, but Lenovo also sees an opportunity in this to capitalize on its stockpile.
- Bloomberg
This massive inventory buildout has ultimately allowed Lenovo to adjust to changes within the supply chain this quarter; however, the company does warn that it may need to implement "adjustments" in 2026, following the ongoing memory supercycle. The official didn't reveal the impact of the ongoing memory shortages on consumer products, but it appears that a vast range of devices will be affected, including laptops and pre-built PCs. Given that Lenovo is one of the largest PC manufacturers, the supply chain will inevitably implement price hikes to combat the uncertainity.
Consumer markets have already begun to witness drastic price hikes across products like consumer RAMs, and it is also anticipated that AMD and NVIDIA will implement increases across their GPU offerings as well. Such moves will ultimately impact the broader consumer industry to the point where the majority of computing devices will see noticeable price hikes. Based on reports, it is anticipated that shortages will persist into 2027, so we have a year of supply constraints ahead.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
