The AI hardware crunch: CPUs join the chip shortage |
The AI hardware crunch: CPUs join the chip shortage
AI shifts from chatbots to autonomous agents, and data centers scramble for the overlooked chip that suddenly does most of the work
Arun SANKAR / AFP via Getty Images
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For three years, the defining hardware story of artificial intelligence has been a GPU shortage. Companies hoarded Nvidia $NVDA's graphics processors like gold bars, willing to pay almost anything for the chips that power AI training. Entire business strategies revolved around who could get access and who couldn't.
Now a second shortage is emerging alongside it, and this one has caught the industry genuinely off guard. The humble CPU, the generalist processor that has powered computers for decades, is suddenly in desperately short supply.
Intel $INTC warned Chinese customers in recent weeks that delivery lead times for some server CPUs have stretched to six months. AMD has pushed its own lead times to eight to ten weeks. Server CPU prices in China have jumped more than 10 percent. In the US and Europe, PC prices are creeping upward too, as chipmakers divert manufacturing capacity........