As major global cloud service providers ramp up the construction of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, the move has not only fueled a skyrocketing demand for AI chips and memory chips but also driven up the need for server CPUs, leading to supply shortages and price increases for server CPUs from industry leaders Intel and AMD.
According to the latest research report released by market research firm TrendForce, North American cloud service providers (CSPs) continue to increase investment in AI infrastructure, which is expected to drive the global shipment of AI servers to grow by more than 28% year-on-year in 2026. The global shipment of servers (including AI servers) will also rise by 12.8% year-on-year in 2026, with a higher growth rate than that of 2025.
Industry sources indicate that due to the large-scale procurement by hyperscalers, Intel and AMD’s full-year 2026 production capacity for server CPUs has nearly been fully booked. To address the extreme supply-demand imbalance and ensure stable supply in the future, both companies plan to raise the prices of server CPUs by 10-15%.
John Vinh, an analyst at KeyBanc, pointed out in a research report released late on January 20 that AMD’s 2026 server CPU production capacity is on the verge of being fully booked. As hyperscalers lock in production capacity to guarantee supply, AMD is likely to increase the average price of its server CPUs by 10-15%.
John Vinh believes that in its fourth-quarter earnings report to be released in February this year, AMD is not only expected to beat Wall Street’s revenue estimates but also raise its earnings outlook for the next quarter, mainly benefiting from the robust demand for server CPUs, especially the latest-generation Turin data center CPUs.
Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Bernstein, also raised AMD’s fourth-quarter revenue forecast in a report released on January 21, citing an optimistic outlook for the server CPU market. His model also predicts that AMD’s revenue from Epyc series server CPUs (including the fifth-generation Turin CPUs) is expected to grow by 30% in 2026.
Affected by the above news, in the US stock trading on January 21, Intel’s share price surged 11.72% to close at $54.25 per share, hitting a new closing high since January 18, 2022; AMD’s share price jumped 7.71% to close at $249.80 per share, a new closing high since November 12, 2025.
Similarly, in the A-share trading on January 21, the share prices of domestic server CPU manufacturers Hygon Information and Loongson Technology soared by 13.34% and 20% respectively. In the A-share trading on January 22, Loongson Technology’s share price rose another 8.81%.
(Reprinted from https://news.eccn.com/）