MSI Chairman Warns Memory & GPU Shortages Will Drag Into 2026, But Says CPU Supply Will Get Better By Q3

MSI says that it expects memory and GPU shortages to persist, but CPU supply will get better in the coming quarters.

PC Market Was Down 20% & GPU Supply Sees 30% Reduction Due To Memory Shortages, But CPUs Are About To See Better Availability Soon

Chairman of MSI (Micro-Star International), Hsu Hsiang, has talked about the PC market & the shortages that currently grip the segments. We know that ever since the rise of Agentic AI and its massive demand for compute, component prices have swelled beyond expectations. GPUs, CPUs, Memory, & Storage are all affected by these shortages, leading to higher prices, and the situation isn't expected to improve any time soon.

It is reported by MSI that during the first quarter, memory prices aimed at gaming laptops & desktop PCs soared, and the graphics segment saw a 30% reduction in chip supply as NVIDIA was unable to meet the supply-demand gaps due to memory shortages. We know that NVIDIA supplies memory modules to its partners for each GPU purchased, and since there was no memory for client platforms, they had to limit the supply aggressively. Our own sources report that NVIDIA's RTX 50 GPU supply has been cut by 50% in the current quarter.

MSI Chairman Hsu Hsiang pointed out that the memory price increase has negatively impacted the DIY market in the second and third quarters. In the consumer market, the price increase has led to customer hesitancy, and quoting prices in the commercial market is difficult because memory manufacturers only update their supply information monthly, resulting in very low supply visibility (only one month's supply), significantly hindering order flexibility. However, the CPU shortage may ease in the second and third quarters.

United Daily News (Machine Translated)

To make matters worse, there's no telling what memory prices will look like moving forward. MSI only gets a one-month visibility for memory, with DRAM makers notifying OEMs about how much memory they can receive each month.

There's no guarantee on prices and availability for the month, which leads to challenges at vendors such as MSI since they have to spend time evaluating whether the price and quantity fit their needs or not. We have also mentioned how major DRAM makers issue penalties if order payments are not made on time, and may even restrict future supply to OEMs and module makers.

Even AMD has warned that DDR5 prices won't return to normal until 2028, which is two years from now.

As of right now, MSI is experiencing a 20% decline in its DIY segment, while the PC market in general is facing a 10-20% decline as prices continue to increase. At the same time, the overall profitability remains stable due to higher prices.

As for consumer models, they will also be affected by memory price increases and CPU shortages, but the latter effect is easing. He explained that AMD is focusing on its server business, and the server business is expanding in response to the impact on PC CPU supply. Now, it is gradually increasing the priority of PC supply, and the situation will see improvement in shipments in the second quarter. Intel expects its supply to also increase in the third quarter, which will reduce the impact on the peak season.

United Daily News (Machine Translated)

On the flip side, CPUs are expected to offer some sort of relief. After facing initial shortages, the CPU segment is expected to see better availability moving into the third quarter. Both AMD and Intel are reportedly prioritizing client CPU production in the third quarter, which will be just in time for the peak season for the PC market, which happens to be in the third and fourth quarters of 2026.

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